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
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Showing 102 of 2,337 notable people

0012 OFFICER

Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig

1861 - 1928

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0018 REPUBLICAN

James Connolly

1868 - 1916

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0053 PHYSIOLOGIST

John Scott Haldane

1860 - 1936

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0072 MATHEMATICIAN

D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson

1860 - 1948

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0127 SCHOLAR

John Burnet (classicist)

1863 - 1928

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0152 WRITER

Helen Bannerman

1862 - 1946

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0161 ACTOR

Spottiswoode Aitken

1868 - 1933

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0173 ACTOR

David Torrence

1864 - 1951

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0187 ASTRONOMER

Robert T. A. Innes

1861 - 1933

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0260 CARTOGRAPHER

John George Bartholomew

1860 - 1920

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0295 PLAYER

Harold Mahony

1867 - 1905

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0338 ENGINEER

Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton

1863 - 1930

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0369 DIPLOMAT

Alfred Mitchell-Innes

1864 - 1950

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0385 LITHOGRAPHER

James Pryde

1866 - 1941

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0421 MATHEMATICIAN

Hector Munro Macdonald

1865 - 1935

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0422 ORIENTALIST

Zainab Cobbold

1867 - 1963

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0448 LITHOGRAPHER

William Gordon Burn Murdoch

1862 - 1939

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0457 ARCHITECT

Robert Lorimer

1864 - 1929

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0482 POLITICIAN

John Sinclair, 1st Baron Pentland

1860 - 1925

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0504 PLAYER

Robin Welsh

1869 - 1934

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0505 PAINTER

Robert Burns (artist)

1869 - 1941

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0614 ACADEMIC

William Hardie

1862 - 1916

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0627 BIOGRAPHER

James Duff Brown

1862 - 1914

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0628 PLAYER

Archibald Warden

1869 - 1943

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0676 CHEMIST

Alexander Smith (chemist)

1865 - 1922

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0714 MILITAR

Sir George Warrender, 7th Baronet

1860 - 1917

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0723 CHEMIST

Arthur Pillans Laurie

1861 - 1949

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0731 PAINTER

Ethel Walker

1861 - 1951

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0775 PHILOSOPHER

James Seth

1860 - 1925

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0821 FOOTBALL

Jimmy Ross (footballer, born 1866)

1866 - 1902

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0837 COMPOSER

Alfred Edward Moffat

1863 - 1950

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0870 OPHTHALMOLOGIST

Charles Usher

1865 - 1942

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0878 COMPOSER

Learmont Drysdale

1866 - 1909

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0879 SCIENTIST

William Gloag

1865 - 1934

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0911 SCULPTOR

J. Massey Rhind

1860 - 1936

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0955 MOUNTAINEER

Harold Raeburn

1865 - 1926

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0958 AUTHOR

Elizabeth Haldane

1862 - 1937

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1089 PAINTER

Allan Stewart (artist)

1865 - 1951

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1091 FOOTBALL

James Adams (footballer, born 1864)

1864 - 1943

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1116 MILITAR

Ewen Sinclair-Maclagan

1868 - 1948

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1128 BIOGRAPHER

Rosaline Masson

1867 - 1947

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1141 PLAYER

John Guthrie Tait

1861 - 1945

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1148 ACTOR

C. M. Hallard

1865 - 1942

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1177 NOVELIST

Jane Findlater

1866 - 1946

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1223 PHYSICIAN

Margaret Ida Balfour

1866 - 1945

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1229 ANARCHIST

Thomas Hastie Bell

1867 - 1942

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1277 BOTANIST

Henry Steedman

1866 - 1953

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1323 MATHEMATICIAN

Robert Edgar Allardice

1862 - 1928

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1350 PAINTER

Peter Alexander Hay

1866 - 1952

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1352 JOURNALIST

Bob Edwards (satirist)

1860 - 1922

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1393 PAINTER

David Murray Smith

1865 - 1952

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1426 FOLKLORIST

Mary MacLeod Banks

1861 - 1951

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1448 MILITAR

Philip Palin

1864 - 1937

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1466 BUSINESS

James Marwick

1862 - 1936

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1475 FOOTBALL

Nick Ross (footballer, born 1862)

1863 - 1894

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1515 MILITAR

George Carter-Campbell

1869 - 1921

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1519 ZOOLOGIST

Malcolm Laurie

1866 - 1932

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1525 WRITER

John Arnott MacCulloch

1868 - 1950

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1614 ACADEMIC

Henry Newton Dickson

1866 - 1922

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1626 MISSIONARY

William Pettigrew (missionary)

1869 - 1943

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1736 ACTOR

Frank Worthing

1866 - 1910

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1745 ROWER

Frederick I. Pitman

1863 - 1942

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1769 ACTIVIST

Agnes Brown (suffragist)

1866 - 1943

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1791 ACTOR

Alexander Edington

1860 - 1928

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1799 SCIENTIST

Alan MacMasters

1865 - 1927

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1803 PRIEST

Kenneth Mackenzie (bishop of Argyll and The Isles)

1863 - 1945

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1807 CRICKET

Henry Stevenson

1867 - 1945

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1824 FOOTBALL

Isaac Begbie

1868 - 1958

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1829 FOOTBALL

John Drummond (footballer)

Born 1869

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1838 DAUGHTER

Hersey Hope, Marchioness of Linlithgow

1867 - 1937

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1882 ACTOR

William Hutchinson

1869 - 1918

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1927 FOOTBALL

Davie Baird

1869 - 1946

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1928 MUSIC

Alexander MacMillan (Hymnologe)

1864 - 1961

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1935 PHYSICIST

Alexander Crichton Mitchell

1864 - 1952

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1938 MATHEMATICIAN

John Watt Butters

1863 - 1946

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1949 ARCHITECT

Thomas Reid Peacock

1866 - 1937

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1971 FOOTBALL

William Calder (footballer)

1869 - 1937

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1980 TEACHER

Charlotte Ainslie

1863 - 1960

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1986 FOOTBALL

George Drummond (footballer)

1865 - 1914

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2000 POLITICIAN

James Murdoch (New South Wales politician)

1867 - 1939

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2012 POLITICIAN

Robert Stirton Thornton

1863 - 1936

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2036 ENGINEER

Keith Elphinstone

1865 - 1941

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2038 POLITICIAN

Alexander Archibald (politician)

1869 - 1922

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2058 PHYSICIAN

Jessie MacLaren MacGregor

1863 - 1906

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2139 FOOTBALL

Lewis Campbell (footballer)

1864 - 1938

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2158 CRICKET

William Johnston (cricketer)

1867 - 1947

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2193 FOOTBALL

Jimmy Weir (footballer, born 1864)

Born 1864

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2209 SCIENTIST

Alice McLaren

1860 - 1945

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2212 FOOTBALL

Hugh Mackay (footballer)

Born 1867

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2233 FOOTBALL

Tom Jenkinson (footballer)

Born 1865

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2238 POLITICIAN

Robert Cruickshank (Australian politician)

1868 - 1928

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2243 FOOTBALL

Sandy Robertson (footballer, born 1860)

1860 - 1927

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2245 COLONEL

Henry Alexis Thomson

1863 - 1924

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2247 TRADE UNION

Alexander Skirving

1868 - 1935

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2260 PHYSIOLOGIST

D. F. Fraser-Harris

1867 - 1937

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2282 CRICKET

Frederick Willoughby

1862 - 1952

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2308 FOOTBALL

Alex McKinnon (footballer)

1865 - 1935

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2316 FOOTBALL

Dave Riddoch

1864 - 1926

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2318 PHYSICIAN

Robert Thin

1861 - 1941

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2322 NEUROLOGIST

William Aldren Turner

1864 - 1945

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2329 RUGBY

George Aitchison (rugby union)

1864 - 1895

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2332 SURGEON

Archibald Donald

1860 - 1937

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