29.9548° N, 90.0749° W

NEW ORLEANS

Most Famous People Born in New Orleans, United States

Notable people

1,804

Peak decade

1940s

Median birth year

1943

Most distinctive

Bandleader 45.7×

The birthplace of jazz, and the numbers make it obvious. New Orleans's distinctive professions are bandleaders, rappers, and musicians at concentrations unmatched by any other city in the dataset — the statistical footprint of Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, Fats Domino, Louis Prima, and the Marsalis family all growing up within a few streetcar stops of each other, with Lil Wayne and Master P extending the line into hip-hop. Baseball and basketball round out the sporting bench, and Truman Capote, Anne Rice, and Lillian Hellman hold down the literary side.