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 1770s Clear ×
Charles Brockden Brown
1771 - 1810
Thomas Horsfield
1773 - 1859
Charles Stewart (1778–1869)
1778 - 1869
John Sergeant (politician)
1779 - 1852
Patrick Gass
1771 - 1870
Thomas Morris (New York politician)
1771 - 1849
Joseph Hopkinson
1770 - 1842
George Washington Bush
1779 - 1863
Mary Young Pickersgill
1776 - 1857
Isaac Wayne
1772 - 1852
John Hunt (publisher)
1775 - 1848
Frederick Graff
1775 - 1847
Adam Seybert
1773 - 1825
James Woodhouse
1770 - 1809
James Milnor
1773 - 1845
John M. Snowden
1776 - 1845
John Henry Hobart
1775 - 1830
Thomas Maguire (priest)
1776 - 1854
Jacob Swoope
1770 - 1832
Daniel Carmick
1772 - 1816
Edward Cutbush
1772 - 1843
Samuel Harrison Smith (printer)
1772 - 1845
William Doughty (naval architect)
1773 - 1859
Samuel F. Bradford
1776 - 1837
Joseph Reed (lawyer)
1771 - 1846
John Harrison (Chemiker)
1773 - 1833
Moses Williams (artist)
1777 - 1825
James R. Caldwell
1778 - 1804