39.9292° N, 75.2300° W
PHILADELPHIA
Most Famous People Born in Philadelphia, USA
- Notable people
- 5,575
- Peak decade
- 1940s
- Median birth year
- 1928
- Most distinctive
- Baseball 6.0×
The original American capital, then the capital of nothing in particular, then a sports town. Philadelphia's notables run thick through the 18th century — lawyers, philanthropists, financiers — and then settle into a long, steady output of baseball players, basketball players, jazz bandleaders, and character actors. The city has one of the highest shares of notables in organized labor of the early 20th century and one of the deepest benches of soul singers of the late 20th.
Standouts
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 556 notable births.
What Philadelphia Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Politician is Philadelphia's biggest profession — 9% of all notables (482).
Philadelphia over-indexes on baseball — 6.0× the global rate.
Philadelphia under-produces football — only 0.4× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Philadelphia's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Politics & Law
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Art & Design
- Other
- Filtered to 1730s Clear ×
Francis Hopkinson
1737 - 1791
George Clymer
1739 - 1813
William Franklin
1731 - 1813
Thomas Willing
1731 - 1821
Edward Biddle
1738 - 1779
James Kinsey
1731 - 1803
Matthew Pratt
1734 - 1805
Samuel Powel
1738 - 1793
William Moore (statesman)
1735 - 1793
William Darke
1736 - 1801
Samuel Wharton
1732 - 1800
Jacob Philadelphia
1735 - 1795
Elizabeth Graeme Fergusson
1737 - 1801
William Shippen Jr.
1736 - 1808
Mary Draper Ingles
1732 - 1815
Owen Biddle Sr.
1737 - 1799
Robert Magaw
1738 - 1790
John Nixon (financier)
1733 - 1808
Samuel Stillman
1737 - 1807
Samuel Morris (soldier)
1734 - 1812
William Goforth
1731 - 1807
Thomas Godfrey (writer)
1736 - 1763
James Irvine (Pennsylvania)
1735 - 1819
Arthur Donaldson
1734 - 1797