Out here in Lynn we get Lydia Pinkham and Mary Baker Eddy. Not too shabby.
Back where I grew up, everything was named for a couple of brothers
If you’re into Gospel music, you’ve heard of Sandy Patty. She lives here in Anderson, Indiana. Carl Erskine was a famous baseball pitcher a long time ago, and he’s from here. He’s a bank president here, now.
The fellow who invented the I-Pod has never been here. :rolleyes:
In Seattle these days the biggest names are probably Gates and Allen, cofounders of a certain software company. For prominent names of the old days you can just look at some of the street names: Denny and Yesler are two of the best known.
In my hometown (Chillicothe, Ohio), the first current name to come to mind is McKell. Our oldest prominent name is either Worthington (early 19thC governor and senator) or Tecumseh (Shawnee chief who probably didn’t see eye-to-eye with Worthington). There is also, at last, a street named after the great jazz singer Nancy Wilson.
Rather than prominent-citizen names, what really says “home” to me are the family names common around Ross County, Ohio: Detty, Bridenbaugh, Strausbaugh, Mendenhall, Knisley, to name a few.
Nashville: Reese Witherspoon
I hear there are some country music singers here too.
I grew up in a town that is so small that the closest we came to fame was that one of our elder citizens was once in love with Olivia de Haviland’s stand-in in *Gone With the Wind. * Davy Crockett lived four miles down the road, but that was a little before my time. Honest.
The Osmonds & Roseanne.
Here in town, the Bin Laden family is quite big. Strangely, I have never encountered one in the Saudi military, where I work. They have better things to do, I guess.
King Richard III died about 10 minutes drive from my current location.
Vachel Lindsay had an elementary school in town named after him (now the building serves as the Leland Grove PD).
Let’s not forget Philadelphia Phillies baseball player Robin Roberts, who has a minor-league baseball stadium named for him.
The Bunn family (food distributors (and I think the Springfield Bunns are related to the coffeemaker Bunns)), for whom a park is named.
Susan Laurence Dana, for whom the Dana-Thomas house is partially named. And possibly also Lawrence Ave too, although the spelling is different.
Re: the library- it’s high time to change the name of the public library. I say either Vachel Lindsay Library or just Springfield Public Library. (But “Springfield Public Library” is too humdrum. Maybe “Lemony Snicket Memorial Library”? 
)
Lafayette’s Riehle Plaza is named for James F. Riehle (pronounced REE-Lee), who was mayor of the city from 1972-95 and a leader of the Railroad Relocation Project which removed most of the train tracks that crossed dozens of streets and created traffic nightmares (before I moved here, fortunately). Several Riehles own a popular local tavern and athletic club.
Across the river in West Lafayette, there’s a university named for John Purdue, who is also immortalized in a commercial block near the Wabash River on the Lafayette side. Purdue was also the founding president of the financial institution where I bank.
Let’s see… off the top of my head:
Lowell
Cabot
Copley
Boylston
Winthrop
Revere
Longfellow
Not sure if they all qualify.
Ipswich: Thomas Wolsey (some-time righthand man to Henry VIII)
Surrounding area: Benjamin Britten, John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough, Elizabeth Garrett (first female doctor in Britain, and also first female mayor).
I won’t add too many names to this list, since I’ve only been living here a year and I’m still learning, but other famous people from here are of course, in the music industry, but too numerous to list them all, but I couldn’t not mention Jimi Hendrix. I have a feeling most of North America can hear “Seattle” and think of a good half dozen bands they know/like/admire so I won’t even begin to list them, in fear I’ll leave too many out!
I agree with Gates and Allen being the biggest current names.
Then there’s:
Richard Karn
Tom Skerritt
Rose McGowan’s Mom!
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Russell Johnson - “The Professor” from Gilligan’s Island
As for where I’m from, in New Brunswick, Canada… hm. Well, **Donald Sutherland **is from Saint John. **Kenny Irving ** (large industry guy, had his finger in every pie out there, most famous for Irving Oil Co.) lived near us for years. Walter Pidgeon.
El Paso, Texas.
We don’t have very many widely known celebrities who reside here (and who could blame them?). The best we’ve got is Don Haskins, longtime coach of the UTEP Miners Men’s basketball team.
There are a few notable personas who originated here or spent enough time here that they couldn’t wash off all of the dust.
- John Wesley Hardin (old west gunfighter)
- Sandra Day O’Connor
- Sam Donaldson
- Gene Roddenberry
- Debbie Reynolds
- Bobby Fuller
- F. Murray Abraham
- Don Bluth
- Irene Ryan (“Granny” on The Beverly Hillbillies)
- Lee Trevino
- Nancy Lopez
- Richard Ramirez (The “Night Stalker”)
- JJ Armes (private detective)
- Hal Warren (writer, producer, director, and star of Manos: The Hands of Fate)
from omaha,
gerald ford
marlon brando
henry fonda
warren buffet
Wigan, England:
George Orwell
…don’t forget George Formby!
Indianapolis, Indiana
Riley–James Whitcomb Riley, craptacular poet from the early 1900’s, not sure what the hoopla is about him, but we have lots of things named after him.
Kurt Vonnegut–pretty damn cool, but nothing is named after him
David Letterman–things named after him in Muncie, IN where he attended Ball State University, and they recently tore down the grocery store where he worked in high school
William Harrison–we have the William Harrison home and museum, big whoop
Simon Properties—multimillion dollar family that owns malls, properties, etc.
Nah, George Orwell gets pride of place. He (rather ironically) has a pub at Wigan Pier named after him. Formby just gets one of those blue plaques on a wall, commemorating where he was born.
Elvis was born in Tupelo,
and then moved to Memphis
McLaughlin - Robert and Sam McLaughlin had a carriageworks here in Oshawa, which eventually became a Buick plant, and then GM Canada.
There’s a whole lot of stuff around here named for (or founded/owned by) the McLaughlins.