DO#1
Sports
Danny O'Donnell
born 1986English association football player (born 1986)
6 Wikipedia languagesRead more ↗
Photo: Rept0n1x · CC BY-SA 3.0Famous people · Rainford, Merseyside
4 famous people call Rainford their birthplace
Most widely known is Danny O'Donnell, the English association football player, with articles in 6 languages. Behind the leader come William Birch and Louis Bimpson. Danny O'Donnell, born in 1986, is the youngest, and William Birch, born in 1887, the first on record. The list comes to 7.2 for every 10,000 residents, about the same as the typical town in Merseyside, at 10.1.
Born here
4
notable people
Best known
Danny O'Donnell
in 6 Wikipedia languages
First
1887
William Birch
Youngest
1986
Danny O'Donnell
Most common field
Sports
4 people
The best known
Born in Rainford
All three are athletes.
WB#2
LB#3
Through the years
When Rainford’s famous people were born
Births peak in the 1980s, with 1 people born in that decade.
Sports
Each dot is a person, stacked by the decade they were born.
Everyone
Everyone else born in Rainford
1 more, best known first.
Next door
Famous people from the towns next door
The best known from each town within 12 miles of Rainford, with how many people each has.
Wigan · 6 miLeon Osman & 326 more
St Helens · 4 miDavid Yates & 223 more
Ormskirk · 6 miJames Hopwood Jeans & 67 more
Prescot · 6 miSteven Gerrard & 39 more
Orrell · 4 miCatherine Ashton & 23 more
Billinge · 3 miKen Owen & 17 moreJCAshton-in-Makerfield · 6 miJune Croft & 13 more
Haydock · 5 miEdmund Arrowsmith & 11 moreQuestions about famous people from Rainford
Who is the most famous person from Rainford?
Danny O'Donnell (English association football player (born 1986)) is the best known by our measure: Wikipedia has an article about them in 6 languages. Next come William Birch and Louis Bimpson.
How many famous people were born in Rainford?
4 people born in Rainford have an English Wikipedia article that confirms the town as their birthplace. Wikidata places 5 people here; the rest aren’t listed because their article names somewhere else, or no town.
What is Rainford known for?
Among its famous people, athletes: 4 of the 4. That is 100% of the town’s list, against 49% across UK towns.
Who is the earliest-born famous person from Rainford?
William Birch, born in 1887. The youngest on the list was born in 1986.
Who counts as from Rainford?
People Wikidata records as born in a place inside Rainford’s built-up area (the ONS 2022 boundary), a hospital or district within it included, whose English Wikipedia article agrees. People who only lived here, adult performers and people known mainly for crimes aren’t listed.
Why is someone missing?
Their Wikidata birthplace may be a bigger area (“London”), another town, or missing, or their article may give no birthplace. We only list people both sources agree on; editing Wikidata or Wikipedia changes this page at the next refresh.
From Wikidata (CC0: birthplaces, descriptions, years, occupations) and English Wikipedia (each person’s article confirms the birthplace; linked, not quoted). Birthplaces are placed in the town by the ONS 2022 built-up-area boundary (Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0). Ranked by how many Wikipedia languages cover each person. Fields are read from Wikidata’s description and occupations. “The usual town”: everyone listed across UK towns. Portraits: each person’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
Photo credits (7)
- Leon Osman: The Bohs, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- David Yates: Joella Marano, CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- James Hopwood Jeans: Kokorik (Uploader), Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
- Steven Gerrard: Эдгар Брещанов, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Catherine Ashton: ©House of Lords / photography by Roger Harris, CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Ken Owen: Shadowgate, CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons
- Edmund Arrowsmith: Arrowsmith, Public domain, Wikimedia Commons
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.