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 1740s Clear ×
Thomas Mifflin
1744 - 1800
Elias Boudinot
1740 - 1821
Gunning Bedford Jr.
1747 - 1812
William White (bishop of Pennsylvania)
1748 - 1836
Ebenezer Hazard
1744 - 1817
Samuel Nicholas
1744 - 1790
Thomas Forrest
1747 - 1825
Jonathan Bayard Smith
1742 - 1812
Andrew Allen (Pennsylvania)
1740 - 1825
Samuel Meredith
1741 - 1817
James White (North Carolina politician)
1749 - 1809
Sarah Franklin Bache
1743 - 1808
Charles Biddle
1745 - 1821
Samuel Bard (physician)
1742 - 1821
Cadwalader Morris
1741 - 1795
Mary Norris Dickinson
1740 - 1803
Henry Benbridge
1743 - 1812
Clement Biddle
1740 - 1814
Allan McLane
1746 - 1829