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 1800s Clear ×
Robert Cornelius
1809 - 1893
William Barton Rogers
1804 - 1882
Alexander Dallas Bache
1806 - 1867
John A. Dahlgren
1809 - 1870
Edwin Forrest
1806 - 1872
Thomas Ustick Walter
1804 - 1887
John Kirk Townsend
1809 - 1851
Sarah Yorke Jackson
1803 - 1887
Sarah Miriam Peale
1800 - 1885
Adolph E. Borie
1809 - 1880
Thomas Green Clemson
1807 - 1888
George Pope Morris
1802 - 1864
Gamaliel Bailey
1807 - 1859
Henry Roberts (architect)
1803 - 1876
Charles Ferguson Smith
1807 - 1862
John Renshaw Thomson
1800 - 1862
John Cadwalader (jurist)
1805 - 1879
George Cadwalader
1806 - 1879
Joseph Addison Alexander
1809 - 1860
Abigail Hopper Gibbons
1801 - 1893
Francis Baring, 3rd Baron Ashburton
1800 - 1868
Benjamin Henry Latrobe II
1806 - 1878
Cornelia Connelly
1809 - 1879
John McGill (bishop)
1809 - 1872
Charles Naylor
1806 - 1872
George A. McCall
1802 - 1868
Jacob Zeilin
1806 - 1880
Kintzing Prichette
1800 - 1869
Job Roberts Tyson
1803 - 1858
Sarah Mapps Douglass
1806 - 1882
William Bradford Reed
1806 - 1876
Henry Darwin Rogers
1808 - 1866
John F. Francis
1808 - 1886
William Wall (U.S. politician)
1800 - 1872
Sidney George Fisher
1809 - 1871
George Middleton (American politician)
1809 - 1888
William Davis Gallagher
1808 - 1894
Thomas Bellerby Wilson
1807 - 1865
John Randolph Clay
1808 - 1885
Thomas Pennant Barton
1803 - 1869
James Blythe Rogers
1802 - 1852
John H. B. Latrobe
1803 - 1891
George Aloysius Carrell
1803 - 1868
Frederick Fraley
1804 - 1901
Joseph Bonnell
1802 - 1840
Jacob R. Eckfeldt
1803 - 1872
Robert Douglass Jr.
1809 - 1887
James L. Lardner
1802 - 1881
Henry A. Lyons
1809 - 1872
Sylvanus William Godon
1809 - 1879
Aristide Rodrigue
1809 - 1857
William Whelan (surgeon)
1808 - 1865
Francesca Anna Canfield
1803 - 1833
Charles William Nassau
1804 - 1878