42.3449° N, 71.0753° W
BOSTON
Most Famous People Born in Boston, United States
- Notable people
- 3,663
- Peak decade
- 1950s
- Median birth year
- 1926
- Most distinctive
- Novelist 3.5×
America's oldest civic intelligentsia. Boston's notables are unusually concentrated in the 1700s and 1800s by American standards, and the distinctive shelves still read like a Yankee almanac — novelists, lawyers, military officers, mathematicians, and diplomats, the trades of a city where Harvard, the State House, and the Old North Church share a few square miles. The modern half tilts more conventionally toward Red Sox baseball, actors, and a deep college-bred music scene.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Boston during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1950s with 348 notable births.
What Boston Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Boston's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (314).
Boston over-indexes on novelist — 3.5× the global rate.
Boston under-produces football — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Boston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Writing
- Film & TV
- Science
- Music
- Other
- Field: Officer Clear ×
Henry Knox
1750 - 1806
Charles Francis Adams Jr.
1835 - 1915
David Porter (naval officer)
1780 - 1843
Edwin Vose Sumner
1797 - 1863
Joseph Dunford
Born 1955
Paul X. Kelley
1928 - 2019
James Barnes (general)
1801 - 1869
Charles Henry Davis
1807 - 1877
Josiah Snelling
1782 - 1828
Joseph T. O'Callahan
1905 - 1964
Benjamin Hallowell Carew
1761 - 1834
Bing West
Born 1940
George D. Murray
1889 - 1956
William H. Blanchard
1916 - 1966
Sir Isaac Coffin, 1st Baronet
1759 - 1839
Joseph Warren Revere (general)
1812 - 1880
John Rous
1702 - 1760
Thomas J.C. Amory
1828 - 1864
John C. Cremony
1815 - 1879
Robert F. McDermott
1920 - 2006
Phil Rasmussen
1918 - 2005
James D. Morgan
1810 - 1896
John Marston (sailor)
1795 - 1885
Henry L. Eustis
1819 - 1885
Richard Wainwright (American Civil War naval officer)
1817 - 1862
William A. Worton
1897 - 1973
Thomas Oliver Selfridge
1804 - 1902
Francis J. Higginson
1843 - 1931
Joseph P. Hoar
Born 1934
Samuel P. Spear
1815 - 1875
Thomas G. Stevenson
1836 - 1864
Thomas Oliver Selfridge Jr.
1836 - 1924
Caspar Crowninshield
1837 - 1897
Kevin Reilly (Louisiana politician)
1928 - 2012
Barbara J. Bishop
1920 - 2005
Thomas Sherwin
1839 - 1914
John Flerlage
Born 1958
Horace Brooks
1814 - 1894
Thomas Kilby Smith
1820 - 1887
Allen Melancthon Sumner
1882 - 1918
Thomas G. Kelley
Born 1939
Robert M. Webster
1892 - 1972
Charles W. Adams (Confederate general)
1817 - 1878
George Francis McGinnis
1826 - 1910
John J. McGinty III
1940 - 2014
William P. Driscoll
Born 1947
Frederick T. Moore Jr.
1914 - 1969
Richard Dunleavy
Born 1933
Thomas H. Dunham
1840 - 1925
Charles Jackson Paine
1833 - 1916
Roberta L. Hazard
1934 - 2017
Edward B. Cole
1879 - 1918
Herman Nickerson Jr.
1913 - 2000
Greely S. Curtis
1830 - 1897
John A. Collins
1931 - 2003
Percival C. Pope
1841 - 1922
Charles Sawyer Russell
1831 - 1866
Joseph Cushing Edmands
1842 - 1878
John P. McDonough (chaplain)
Born 1928
Arthur R. Curtis
1842 - 1925
Anthony T. Shtogren
1917 - 2003
Samuel Bradford Jones
1826 - 1908
John Joseph Doherty
1919 - 1942