List of posthumously-born notable people

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This is a partial list of notable people who were born after the death of their father.

Being born posthumously has special significance in the case of hereditary monarchies where male primogeniture applies. Prior to modern medical techniques, if the queen was pregnant at the time of the king's death, and the living heir was a female, it would have been necessary to wait until the birth of the child to determine its sex, which would in turn determine the succession. Even if such a situation arose today, it would still be necessary to determine the sex of the foetus. A male child would supplant the heiress and be born a king, although a regent would be appointed until he came of age.

1 Monarchy
2 Heads of state
3 Other notable people
4 Mistakenly believed to have been born posthumously
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Monarchy

Lothair III, Holy Roman Emperor - born June 1075, shortly after his father's death
King John I of France - born 15 November 1316, five months after the death of King Louis X. He lived for only six days, but was a king for his entire short life.
Ladislaus the Posthumous, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and Duke of Austria - born 22 February 1440, four months after the death of his father Albert II of Germany
Queen Caroline Mathilde of Denmark, born 11 July, 1751, five months after the death of her father Frederick Lewis, Prince of Wales.
King Alfonso XIII of Spain - born 17 May 1886, six months after the death of King Alfonso XII.

[edit] Heads of state

Andrew Jackson, U.S. president - born 15 March 1767, three weeks after the death of his father Andrew Jackson, Sr. in a lumber accident
Bill Clinton, U.S. president - 19 August 1946, three months after his father William Jefferson Blythe, Jr. drowned following a motor accident

[edit] Other notable people

Muhammad, founder of Islam - born c. 570, six months after his father died
St Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint - born 17 June 1603
Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist - born 4 January 1643, three months after his father's death
Jonathan Swift, English writer - born 30 November 1667, seven months after his father died
George Washington Carver, American botanical researcher and educator - born c. 1864 after his father had been killed
Breaker Morant, Australian soldier and folk hero - born December 1864
Mabel Mercer, UK-born American cabaret singer - born 3 February 1900
Stanley Kunitz, Lithuanian-U.S. poet - born 29 July 1905, six weeks after his father suicided
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian novelist - born 11 December 1918; his father was killed in a hunting accident shortly after his wife became pregnant
Jett Williams, American singer - born 6 January 1953, five days after Hank Williams' death
Tyrone Power Jr, American actor - born 22 January 1959, three months after the death of his father Tyrone Power
Antwone Fisher, American author, screenwriter, and film producer - born 3 August 1959
Rory Kennedy, US documentary film maker - born 12 December 1968, six months after the assassination of her father Robert F Kennedy

[edit] Mistakenly believed to have been born posthumously

Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Swedish singer, member of ABBA, was born 15 November 1945, out of wedlock. She was led to believe that her father had died before she was born, when his ship sailing to Germany was sunk during the war. However, after the German teen magazine Bravo published her biography and a background story in August 1977, she discovered that her father was alive, and they were reunited that year.