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.
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 botanist — 3.0× the global rate.
Edinburgh under-produces politician — only 0.7× the global rate.
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.
- Sports
- Science
- Politics & Law
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Film & TV
- Other
- Filtered to 1900s Clear ×
Alastair Sim
1900 - 1976
W. V. D. Hodge
1903 - 1975
David Maxwell Fyfe, 1st Earl of Kilmuir
1900 - 1967
Frieda Inescort
1901 - 1976
J. I. M. Stewart
1906 - 1994
Robert Boothby, Baron Boothby
1900 - 1986
George Taylor (botanist)
1904 - 1993
Charlie Gardiner (ice hockey)
1904 - 1934
David Murray (racing driver)
1909 - 1973
Leslie Mitchell (broadcaster)
1905 - 1985
Robert Garioch
1909 - 1981
Charles Comfort
1900 - 1994
Robert Black (colonial administrator)
1906 - 1999
William Wilson (artist)
1905 - 1972
Guy Warrack
1900 - 1986
James McKenzie (boxer)
1903 - 1931
Colin Hardie
1906 - 1998
Alaric Jacob
1909 - 1995
Keith Murray, Baron Murray of Newhaven
1903 - 1993
Reginald Stewart (conductor)
1900 - 1984
Harry Melville (chemist)
1908 - 2000
Louis Isaac Rabinowitz
1906 - 1984
Alan Richardson (composer)
1904 - 1978
W. F. R. Hardie
1902 - 1990
Henry Scrymgeour-Wedderburn, 11th Earl of Dundee
1902 - 1983
George McKenzie (boxer)
1901 - 1941
Stephen Neill
1900 - 1984
Ian Aird
1905 - 1962
Christopher Guest, Baron Guest
1901 - 1984
Hugh McDermott (actor)
1908 - 1972
Donald MacGillivray
1906 - 1966
Alec Peterson
1908 - 1988
Henry Raeburn Dobson
1901 - 1985
Eustace Chesser
1902 - 1973
Victor Noel-Paton, Baron Ferrier
1900 - 1992
Edward Howard-Vyse
1905 - 1992
Saira Elizabeth Luiza Shah
1900 - 1960
Ian Gordon Lindsay
1906 - 1966
Ross Logan
1909 - 1993
Marion Ross (physicist)
1903 - 1994
Fyfe Robertson
1902 - 1987
William Ritchie Russell
1903 - 1980
Madeleine Christie
1904 - 1996
Moira Lynd
1903 - 1984
Ian Bowhill
1903 - 1975
George Sutherland (athlete)
1903 - 1951
Jean McDowell
1908 - 2000
Bobby Connors
1902 - 1931
Arthur Young (Musiker)
1904 - 1965
Archibald Crabbe
1903 - 1981
Billy Johnston (footballer, born 1901)
1901 - 1932
Margaret McLarty
1908 - 1996
Dora Noyce
1900 - 1977
A. Thomas Alsbury
1904 - 1990
Andrew Murray (Scottish politician)
1903 - 1977
Anne Bryans
1909 - 2004
Alex Ogilvy
1901 - 1984
Andrew Stewart (economist)
1904 - 1990
Agnes Yewande Savage
1906 - 1964
James Tocher Bain
1906 - 1988
Mick Connaboy
1901 - 1948
Jock Wilson (British Army soldier)
1903 - 2008
Alison Geissler
1907 - 2011
John Roxburgh (footballer)
1901 - 1965
Dave Edgar (footballer)
1902 - 1976
Tommy Flannigan
1908 - 1981
Charles Baillee
Born 1902
John Crombie
1900 - 1972
Norman Mackay
1902 - 1935
Herbert Archbold Brechin
1903 - 1979
Archie Gorman
Born 1909
Barbara Quaile
1906 - 1999
Willie Pullar
1900 - 1954
Ewart Runciman
1907 - 1981
Colin Shaw (rugby union)
1902 - 1976
William Hair
Born 1904
Alex Welsh (curler)
1907 - 1971