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 1940s Clear ×
Angus Deaton
Born 1945
Fraser Stoddart
Born 1942
Malcolm Rifkind
Born 1946
Ian Charleson
1949 - 1990
Ian Wilmut
Born 1944
Graham Masterton
Born 1946
Richard Henderson (biologist)
Born 1945
Hew Strachan
Born 1949
Sandy Jardine
1948 - 2014
Dougal Haston
1940 - 1977
Ken Buchanan
Born 1945
David Lyon (sociologist)
Born 1948
David Paton
Born 1949
Alan Myerson
Born 1940
Peter Cormack
Born 1946
Ricky Gardiner
Born 1948
John Greig
Born 1942
Isobel Black
Born 1943
John Kay (economist)
Born 1948
Pat Stanton
Born 1944
Alan Longmuir
1948 - 2018
Glenn Chandler
Born 1949
Albert Watson (Fotograf)
Born 1942
Frank Doran (British politician)
1949 - 2017
Robin Williamson
Born 1943
Richard Noble
Born 1946
Stewart Stevenson
Born 1946
Ron Butlin
Born 1949
David Donachie
Born 1944
Witold Rybczynski
Born 1943
Kenneth Stevenson
1949 - 2011
James Webb (historian)
1946 - 1980
Hannah Gordon
Born 1941
Tam White
1942 - 2010
Fiona Woolf
Born 1948
Shena Mackay
Born 1944
Maggie Nicols
Born 1948
Alan Bold
1943 - 1998
Charlie Aitken (footballer, born 1942)
Born 1942
Alison Elliot
Born 1948
Andrew Nagorski
Born 1947
Alexander Broadie
Born 1942
Jean Comaroff
Born 1946
Eric Robertson (composer)
Born 1948
Lesley Beake
Born 1949
Carol Brown Janeway
1944 - 2015
Shelagh McDonald
Born 1948
Malcolm Chisholm
Born 1949
Merlin Hay, 24th Earl of Erroll
Born 1948
Richard M. Hogg
1944 - 2007
Colin William MacLeod
1943 - 1981
Ian Hanmore
Born 1945
Martin O'Neill, Baron O'Neill of Clackmannan
1945 - 2020
John Home Robertson
Born 1948
Alexis Jay
Born 1949
Quinn O'Hara
1941 - 2017
Colin Low, Baron Low of Dalston
Born 1942
Paul Young (actor)
Born 1944
Bill Walker (Scottish Nationalist politician)
Born 1942
Brigit Forsyth
Born 1940
George Smith (referee)
1943 - 2019
David Davidson (Scottish politician)
Born 1943
Giles Gordon
1940 - 2003
Ron Wilson (footballer, born 1941)
Born 1941
Robert Wedderburn (statistician)
1947 - 1975
Alastair Biggar
1946 - 2016
Doug Henderson (Labour politician)
Born 1949
Murdo MacLeod (snooker player)
Born 1947
Andrew Scull
Born 1947
Jim Hermiston
Born 1947
Stefan Reif
Born 1944
Dougie Morgan
1947 - 2020
Licorice McKechnie
Born 1945
Rodger Arneil
Born 1944
David Johnson (Scottish composer)
1942 - 2009
Andrew Purves
Born 1946
Alan Gordon (Scottish footballer)
1944 - 2010
Jack McKenzie (actor)
Born 1942
Stuart Henry (DJ)
1942 - 1995
Douglas Rae (TV executive)
Born 1947
Fred Talbot
Born 1949
Willie Hunter (footballer)
1940 - 2020
Joyce W. Cairns
Born 1947
Gordon Keddie
Born 1944
Dave Petrie
1946 - 2011
Stella Kon
Born 1944
Ian Dunlop
Born 1940
Jimmy O'Rourke
Born 1946
Mike Starrs
Born 1947
Duncan Forbes (footballer)
1941 - 2019
Keith Cochrane
Born 1949
Garth Morrison
1943 - 2013
Derek Emslie, Lord Kingarth
Born 1949
Bobby Roberts (footballer)
Born 1940
Richard Simpson (Scottish politician)
Born 1942
Nigel Emslie, Lord Emslie
Born 1947
Harry Thomson (footballer)
1940 - 2013
Roy Barry
Born 1942
Alexander Wedderburn (Theologe)
1942 - 2018
Brian Collins (speedway rider)
Born 1948
Bobby Ross (footballer, born 1942)
Born 1942
Haldane Duncan
1940 - 2018
Brian Lang
Born 1945
Alan Welsh
Born 1947
Sally Macintyre
Born 1949
Christopher MacLehose
Born 1940
Graham Ritchie
1942 - 2005
Billy Fraser
Born 1945
George I. Stegeman
1942 - 2015
Ken Grieve
1942 - 2016
Roy Geddes
1940 - 2006
Ross D. E. MacPhee
Born 1949
Charles V. J. Russ
Born 1942
Mickey Lawson
Born 1949
Roy Kay
Born 1949
Ajahn Candasiri
Born 1947
Barry Simmons
Born 1948
Keith McAdam
Born 1945
Hamish Telfer Adam
Born 1947
John Herdman (author)
Born 1941
Stuart Markland
1948 - 2017
James Haldane O'Hare
Born 1941
Brian Smith (bishop)
Born 1943
Alex Ingram
Born 1945
Mick Cullerton
Born 1948
George Fleming (footballer, born 1948)
Born 1948
Billy Higgins (footballer)
Born 1940
Elizabeth Meehan (academic)
1947 - 2018
Michael Jones, Lord Jones
1948 - 2016
Ian Wilson (entrepreneur)
Born 1943
Ally Donaldson
Born 1943
John G. Sclater
Born 1940
J. Michael Henderson
Born 1945
Jackie Murphy
1949 - 1970
Frank Sharp (footballer, born 1947)
Born 1947
Alex Pringle
Born 1948
Dennis Martin
Born 1947
Walter Borthwick
Born 1948
George Stewart (footballer, born 1947)
Born 1947
David Clunie
Born 1948
Tommy Veitch
1949 - 1987
Alex Donald
Born 1948
Chris Shevlane
Born 1942
Andy Haddock
Born 1946
Bobby McCool
1948 - 2019
Fred Jardine
Born 1941
Billy McNulty
Born 1949
John MacNamee
Born 1942
Bobby Ford (Scottish footballer)
Born 1949
Ian Forsyth
Born 1946
Arthur Thomson (footballer, born 1948)
1948 - 2002
John Brown (footballer, born March 1940)
Born 1940
John Stewart (businessman)
Born 1949
Davie Hogg
Born 1946
Billy Simpson (calciatore 1945-2009)
1945 - 2009
Lawrence Lovell
Born 1944
Bobby Park (footballer, born 1946)
1946 - 2019
Bobby Ross (footballer, born 1941)
Born 1941
Norrie Gillespie
Born 1940