55.9533° N, 3.1894° W

EDINBURGH

Most Famous People Born in Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Notable people
2,337
Peak decade
1980s
Median birth year
1919
Most distinctive
Botanist 3.0×

Half university town, half capital. Edinburgh's notables are unusually dense in the 1700s and 1800s — botanists, chemists, physicians, judges, and engineers — a footprint that maps almost perfectly onto the Scottish Enlightenment and the Victorian scientific establishment. The modern half adds cricketers and rugby players (grouped in the data as 'player'), but the city's intellectual tilt is still its defining feature.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Edinburgh during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 175 notable births.

What Edinburgh Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Football is Edinburgh's biggest profession — 22% of all notables (509).

Edinburgh over-indexes on botanist3.0× the global rate.

Edinburgh under-produces politician — only 0.7× the global rate.

  1. Football509
  2. Politician182
  3. Painter103
  4. Player96
  5. Actor88
  6. Cricket57
  7. Writer55
  8. Physician42
  1. Botanist283.0×
  2. Chemist232.8×
  3. Judge302.7×
  4. Physician422.6×
  5. Engineer312.1×
  6. Player962.1×
  7. Football5092.0×
  8. Cricket571.9×
  1. Politician1820.7×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Edinburgh's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

15001550160016501700175018001850190019502000
  • Sports
  • Science
  • Politics & Law
  • Writing
  • Art & Design
  • Film & TV
  • Other
All2,337
Sort By

Showing 72 of 2,337 notable people

0008 PHYSICIST

James Clerk Maxwell

1831 - 1879

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0064 PHYSICIAN

Joseph Bell

1837 - 1911

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0091 PHOTOGRAPHER

John Thomson (photographer)

1837 - 1921

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0092 ARCHITECT

Richard Norman Shaw

1831 - 1912

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0114 CARTOGRAPHER

Archibald Geikie

1835 - 1924

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0155 GEOLOGIST

James Hector

1834 - 1907

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0174 ZOOLOGIST

John Anderson (zoologist)

1833 - 1900

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0221 POLITICIAN

Sir James Fergusson, 6th Baronet

1832 - 1907

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0278 CHEMIST

Alexander Crum Brown

1838 - 1922

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0283 PAINTER

William Quiller Orchardson

1832 - 1910

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0309 GEOLOGIST

James Geikie

1839 - 1915

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0335 PAINTER

John Pettie

1839 - 1893

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0341 POLITICIAN

David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow

1833 - 1915

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0375 BOTANIST

Thomas Anderson (botanist)

1832 - 1870

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0378 OPERA

Euphrosyne Parepa-Rosa

1836 - 1874

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0410 OPHTHALMOLOGIST

Douglas Argyll Robertson

1837 - 1909

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0440 PAINTER

John MacWhirter

1837 - 1911

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0447 GOVERNMENT

Charles Umpherston Aitchison

1832 - 1896

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0484 PHILOSOPHER

Edmund Montgomery

1835 - 1911

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0529 POLITICIAN

William Wedderburn

1838 - 1918

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0537 PHYSICIAN

Agnes McLaren

1837 - 1913

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0553 LINGUIST

Lewis Campbell (classicist)

1830 - 1908

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0634 ORNITHOLOGIST

Edward Hargitt

1835 - 1895

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0637 TEACHER

James Stewart (missionary)

1831 - 1905

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0642 CARTOGRAPHER

John Bartholomew

1831 - 1893

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0643 WRITER

James Grant Wilson

1832 - 1914

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0656 PATHOLOGIST

Thomas Grainger Stewart

1837 - 1900

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0675 WRITER

Edmund Yates

1831 - 1894

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0680 MISSIONARY

James Laidlaw Maxwell

1836 - 1921

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0824 BUSINESS

Archibald Scott Cleghorn

1835 - 1910

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0842 ENGINEER

James Balfour (engineer)

1831 - 1869

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0893 PHYSICIAN

James Law (veterinarian)

1838 - 1921

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0939 SONGWRITER

Elizabeth Clephane

1830 - 1869

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0965 BOTANIST

Alexander Dickson (botanist)

1836 - 1887

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1034 BOTANIST

Richard Austin Bastow

1839 - 1920

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1037 PAINTER

Peter Graham (Maler)

1836 - 1921

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1045 JOURNALIST

John Meiklejohn

1836 - 1902

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1131 OFFICER

William Hope (VC)

1834 - 1909

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1155 PAINTER

John Burr

1831 - 1893

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1175 PATRIOT

Kate Cumming

1835 - 1909

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1191 PAINTER

George Aikman

1830 - 1905

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1203 EXPLORER

Thomas Petrie

1831 - 1910

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1225 SCULPTOR

John Hutchison (sculptor)

1833 - 1910

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1234 BIOGRAPHER

Aeneas James George Mackay

1839 - 1911

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1248 AUTHOR

William Fraser Rae

1835 - 1905

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1271 ENGINEER

Peter Paul Marshall

1830 - 1900

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1281 SCULPTOR

George Anderson Lawson

1832 - 1904

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1286 WRITER

John Phin

1832 - 1913

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1326 POLITICIAN

Robert Farquharson (politician)

1837 - 1918

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1329 CLERGY

George C. Lorimer

1838 - 1904

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1332 GOVERNMENT

Alexander Bruce Tulloch

1838 - 1920

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1386 POET

Isa Knox (writer)

1831 - 1903

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1400 ACTIVIST

Isabella Tod

1836 - 1896

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1484 POLITICIAN

John Darling Sr.

1831 - 1905

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1495 EDITOR

Robert Chambers Jr.

1832 - 1888

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1512 CRICKET

David Buchanan (cricketer)

1830 - 1900

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1573 JUDGE

Alexander Kinnear, 1st Baron Kinnear

1833 - 1917

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1643 SOLDIER

James Davis (VC)

1835 - 1893

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1656 OFFICER

Peter A.S. McGlashan

1831 - 1908

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1660 POLITICIAN

Francis Ivory

1831 - 1896

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1698 ENGINEER

William Dyce Cay

1837 - 1925

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1706 ACADEMIC

William Salmond (Presbyterian minister)

1835 - 1917

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1795 POLITICIAN

George Ralph Richardson Cockburn

1834 - 1912

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1816 MISSING

William Charles (fur trader)

1831 - 1903

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1913 POLITICIAN

Alexander Thorburn

1836 - 1894

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1947 CRICKET

John Boak

1837 - 1876

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1968 PHILANTHROPIST

Emma Stirling

1839 - 1907

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2008 TEACHER

Jane Agnes Chessar

1835 - 1880

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2017 NAVY

Henry Fairfax (Royal Navy officer)

1837 - 1900

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2203 GOLF

Peter McEwan Sr.

1834 - 1895

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2204 POLITICIAN

William Graham (Queensland politician)

1836 - 1892

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2313 ARCHITECT

William Irving (architect)

1830 - 1883

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