Famous birthdays
Famous people born on May 17
Short answer
Well-known people born on May 17 include Edward Jenner (1749), Enya (1961), Henri Barbusse (1873) and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (1953). Our list below has 103 people for this date, most widely covered first.
This list covers people whose Wikidata record gives May 17 as their exact birth date and who have articles in at least 28 Wikipedia language editions. The earliest birth year here is 1682 (Bartholomew Roberts) and the most recent is 2006 (Senny Mayulu). The most common fields on this date: football, actor, singer.
Who was born on May 17?
- Edward Jenner 1749 English physician, scientist and pioneer of vaccination
- Enya 1961 Irish singer
- Henri Barbusse 1873 French author
- Kassym-Jomart Tokayev 1953 President of Kazakhstan since 2019
- Jean Gabin 1904 French actor and singer
- Erik Satie 1866 French composer and pianist
- Alfonso XIII 1886 King of Spain from 1886 to 1931
- Dennis Hopper 1936 American actor and film director
- Bob Saget 1956 American stand-up comedian
- Bill Paxton 1955 American actor and filmmaker
- Vjosa Osmani 1982 Former president of Kosovo (2020–2021, 2021–2026)
- Janez Drnovšek 1950 Slovenian politician
- Queen Máxima of the Netherlands 1971 Queen consort of the Netherlands
- Odd Hassel 1897 Norwegian physical chemist and Nobel Laureate
- Ferenc Krausz 1962 Austrian-Hungarian laser physicist and university teacher
- Tony Parker 1982 French basketball player
- Birgit Nilsson 1918 Swedish opera singer
- Nikki Reed 1988 American actress
- Mohamed Nasheed 1967 Maldivian politician, 4th president of the second republic of Maldives
- Alan Kay 1940 American computer scientist
- Koki Yonekura 1988 Japanese association football player
- Igor Denisov 1984 Russian footballer
- Trent Reznor 1965 American musician
- Léon Marchand 2002 French swimmer
- Sasha Alexander 1973 American actress
- Sugar Ray Leonard 1956 American boxer
- Norman Lockyer 1836 English scientist and astronomer
- Maureen O'Sullivan 1911 Irish-American actress
- Iñigo Martínez 1991 Spanish association football player
- Teófilo Gutiérrez 1985 Colombian footballer
- Daiki Hashioka 1999 Japanese association football player
- Craig Ferguson 1962 British actor
- Horst Köppel 1948 German association football player and manager
- Caroline of Brunswick 1768 Queen consort of the United Kingdom and Hanover from 1820 to 1821
- Joseph M. Acaba 1967 Astronaut, Hydrogeologist, science teacher
- Julius Wellhausen 1844 German theologian and orientalist
- Gina Raimondo 1971 40th United States Secretary of Commerce
- Greg Van Avermaet 1985 Belgian cyclist
- Johanna Konta 1991 British female tennis player
- Cristian Gamboa 1984 Costa Rican association football player
- Annise Parker 1956 American politician
- Rafa Silva 1993 Portuguese footballer
- Martin Olsson 1988 Swedish association football player
- Bartholomew Roberts 1682 Welsh pirate
- Jacint Verdaguer 1845 Catalan writer and poet
- Leon Osman 1981 English association football player
- Yuri Kawamura 1989 Japanese association football player
- Valeriya Novodvorskaya 1950 Russian politician
- Bojan Jokić 1986 Slovenian footballer
- Taj Mahal 1942 American blues musician
- David Jarolím 1979 Czech footballer and coach
- Passenger 1984 English singer-songwriter
- Manu Koné 2001 French footballer
- Danko Lazović 1983 Serbian footballer and administrator
- Álvaro Gestido 1907 Uruguayan footballer
- Tessa Virtue 1989 Canadian ice dancer
- Matěj Kovář 2000 Czech association football player
- Miloslav Vlk 1932 Czech Catholic Cardinal
- Qusay Hussein Kiricocho 1966 Iraqi politician
- Andrea Corr 1974 Irish musician
- Damiano Tommasi 1974 Italian footballer
- Hawa Abdi 1947 Somalian physician, activist
- Jimmie Åkesson 1979 Swedish politician
- Leehom Wang 1976 Taiwanese singer, songwriter, actor
- Sendhil Ramamurthy 1974 Actor from United States of America
- Christine Ohuruogu 1984 British female 400m Olympic sprinter
- Patsy Reddy 1954 Governor-general of New Zealand from 2016 to 2021
- Patricia Guijarro 1998 Spanish association football player
- Leven Rambin 1990 American actress
- José Chamot 1969 Argentine association football player
- Jorge Olguín 1952 Argentine footballer
- Branko Zebec 1929 Croatian footballer and manager
- Peter Høeg 1957 Danish writer
- Ott Lepland 1987 Estonian singer
- Shiri Maimon 1981 Israeli singer
- Matthew McGrory 1973 American actor
- Erik Lesser 1988 German biathlete
- Winfried Kretschmann 1948 German politician
- Ilona Elek 1907 Hungarian fencer
- Raoul Bellanova 2000 Italian association football player
- Edvald Boasson-Hagen 1987 Norwegian road racing cyclist
- Ahmed Yasser 1994 Qatari association football player
- Mikel Alonso 1980 Spanish footballer
- Rochelle Aytes 1976 American actress
- Bill Bruford 1949 English drummer
- Makoto Sugiyama 1960 Japanese association football player
- Sirajuddin I of Perlis 1943 Raja of Perlis
- Josh Homme 1973 American musician
- Darío Benedetto 1990 Argentine footballer
- Senny Mayulu 2006 French footballer
- Magda Schneider 1909 German actress
- Moran Mazor 1991 Israeli singer
- Masahiro Okamoto 1983 Japanese association football player
- Khuang Aphaiwong 1902 Prime Minister of Thailand
- Ross Butler 1990 Singaporean-born American actor
- Hill Harper 1966 American actor and political candidate
- Grace Zabriskie 1941 American actress
- Andreas Kofler 1984 Austrian ski jumper
- Alistair Overeem 1980 Dutch mixed martial artist and kickboxer
- Udo Lindenberg 1946 German rock musician and composer
- Fazlollah Zahedi 1892 Iranian general, statesman
- Toru Yoshida 1965 Japanese association football player
- Omar Razzaz 1961 Jordanian politician
Names link to each person's Wikidata entry, the source of the date. Data: Wikidata (CC0), refreshed October 30, 2026. People born on May 17 share the 17th of May as a birthday; check the Famous Birthdays Finder for any other date.