51.0534° N, 3.7250° E
GENT
Most Famous People Born in Gent, Belgium
- Notable people
- 850
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1897
- Most distinctive
- Rower 9.6×
Charles V's birthplace and a Flemish Primitive stronghold — the Painter bench tracks Van Eyck's altarpiece and the long wake of Hugo van der Goes and Théo van Rysselberghe. The real oddity is a Rower cohort wildly out of proportion to anything else (thank the Watersportbaan) sitting next to a Conductor line that runs from Jacob Obrecht straight through Herreweghe's early-music revival.
One face per century — the most globally famous figure born in Gent during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 64 notable births.
What Gent Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Gent's biggest profession — 17% of all notables (146).
Gent over-indexes on rower — 9.6× the global rate.
Gent under-produces actor — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Gent's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Art & Design
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1860s Clear ×
Maurice Maeterlinck
1862 - 1949
Victor Horta
1861 - 1947
Leo Baekeland
1863 - 1944
Théo van Rysselberghe
1862 - 1926
George Minne
1866 - 1941
Henri Lammens
1862 - 1937
Charles van Lerberghe
1861 - 1907
Constant Montald
1862 - 1944
Albert Baertsoen
1866 - 1922
Stephan Kekulé von Stradonitz
1863 - 1933
Anna De Weert
1867 - 1950
Armand Thiéry
1868 - 1955
Grégoire Le Roy
1862 - 1941
Georges Hulin de Loo
1862 - 1945
Félix Wielemans
1863 - 1917
Georges Buysse
1864 - 1916
Ferdinand Feyerick
1865 - 1920
Edouard Rolin-Jaequemyns
1863 - 1936
Brice Meuleman
1862 - 1924
Ferdinand Elbers
1862 - 1943
Ferdinand Willaert
1861 - 1938
Alfred Vanderstegen
1869 - 1959
Alice de Keghel
Born 1869
Amand Casier de ter Beken
1862 - 1938
Guillaume de Giey
1860 - 1914
Edouard Van Vlaenderen
1868 - 1958
Charles Dusart
1860 - 1914
Joseph Libbrecht
1860 - 1928
Auguste Huyshauwer
1862 - 1926
Victor Hessens
1868 - 1957
Charles Hannick
1867 - 1944
Alfred Amelot
1868 - 1966
Prosper Kestens
1867 - 1945
François Bethune
1868 - 1938
Henricus Lefèvre
1863 - 1921
Maurice de Maere d'Aertrycke
1864 - 1941
Frédéric Spyers
1866 - 1941
Louis Choisy (aviron)
1869 - 1942