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 1790s Clear ×
George M. Dallas
1792 - 1864
Samuel George Morton
1799 - 1851
Henry Charles Carey
1793 - 1879
Charles Hodge
1797 - 1878
Titian Peale
1799 - 1885
Thomas Doughty (artist)
1793 - 1856
William M. Meredith
1799 - 1873
Richard Harlan
1796 - 1843
Uriah P. Levy
1792 - 1862
Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton
1799 - 1864
Franklin Peale
1795 - 1870
John Brown Francis
1791 - 1864
William C. Preston
1794 - 1860
Anna Claypoole Peale
1791 - 1878
Persifor Frazer Smith
1798 - 1858
John Church Hamilton
1792 - 1882
Warder Cresson
1798 - 1860
Elliott Cresson
1796 - 1854
Francis Johnson (composer)
1792 - 1844
John Biddle (Michigan politician)
1792 - 1859
Alexander J. Dallas (United States Navy officer)
1791 - 1844
John M. Read
1797 - 1874
Margaretta Angelica Peale
1795 - 1882
Richard Biddle
1796 - 1847
Francis Swaine Muhlenberg
1795 - 1831
John Payne Todd
1792 - 1852
Edward Williams Clay
1799 - 1857
Joseph Biles Anthony
1795 - 1851
Samuel M. Moore
1796 - 1875
Charles Brown (congressman)
1797 - 1883
George Washington Toland
1796 - 1869
William Sitgreaves Cox
1790 - 1874
Thomas Biddle
1790 - 1831
James Hall (writer)
1793 - 1868
David Claypoole Johnston
1798 - 1865
James Otto Lewis
1799 - 1858
Richard Penn Smith
1799 - 1854
Jacob Green
1790 - 1841
Daniel B. Smith
1792 - 1883
James S. Green (attorney)
1792 - 1862
Margaretta Morris
1797 - 1867
Lardner Vanuxem
1792 - 1848
Howard Malcom
1799 - 1879
Charles Cist (editor)
1792 - 1868
Edward King (jurist)
1794 - 1873
Samuel H. Turner
1790 - 1861
Benjamin Faneuil Dunkin
1792 - 1874
Hugh Reinagle
1790 - 1834
Christian Frederic Crusé
1794 - 1865
William Mervine
1791 - 1868
Charles Stewart McCauley
1793 - 1869
William Wagner (philanthropist)
1796 - 1885
Henry J. Wilson
1793 - 1872
Archibald Randall
1797 - 1846