List of orphans and foundlings

• Amenhotep III, pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty
• Hatshepsut, pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
• Thutmose III, Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty

• Andal, Tamil saint, found in a temple garden according to religious tradition
• Antiochus III the Great, Hellenistic Greek king and the 6th ruler of the Seleucid Empire
• Confucius, Chinese scholar & politician
• Cyrus the Great, Persian emperor, orphaned in childhood
• Esther, Jewish queen of the Persian king Ahasuerus
• Moses, religious leader, given up as an infant
• Sargon of Akkad, ruler of the Semitic-speaking Akkadian Empire
• Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children, orphaned early in childhood
• Pulcheria, Roman ruler "Augusta Imperatrix"

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• Aristotle, Greek philosopher and scientist, orphaned in early childhood
• Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome
• Britannicus, son of the Roman emperor Claudius and his third wife Valeria Messalina
• Caligula, Roman emperor in AD 37–41
• Cato the Younger, Roman Republic, left an orphan and raised by his uncle
• Hadrian, Roman emperor
• Juba II, king of Numidia and then later moved to Mauretania and his wife Cleopatra Selene II
• Julian, Roman Emperor and philosopher
• Oedipus, mythical Greek king, abandoned on a mountain
• Pancras, Roman religious figure
• Galla Placidia, major force in Roman politics
• Romulus and Remus, traditional founders of Ancient Rome, orphaned in infancy
• Sulla, Roman general and statesman
• Lucius Verus, Roman Emperor

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• Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, sixth Fatimid caliph and 16th Ismaili imam
• Jean-Hilaire Aubame, Gabonese politician active during both the colonial and independence periods
• Jean-Bédel Bokassa, military officer and the head of state of the Central African Republic and Emperor of Central Africa
• Piet Joubert, military leader in South African Republic
• Jomo Kenyatta, Kenyan politician and the first President of Kenya
• Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, South African activist and politician
• Nelson Mandela, president of South Africa, raised as a ward
• Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia
• Mobutu Sese Seko, military dictator and President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
• Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia
• Gamal Abdel Nasser, second President of Egypt

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• Abbas, 5th Shah of Safavid dynasty of Iran
• Akbar, rulers of the Mughal Dynasty in India
• Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader
• Chulalongkorn, monarch of Siam
• Sayajirao Gaekwad III, Maharaja of Baroda State
• Go-Momozono, Emperor of Japan
• Go-Sakuramachi, Emperor of Japan
• Go-Toba, Emperor of Japan
• Hongwu, Chinese emperor
• Huineng, Buddhist monk who is one of the most important figures in Chan Buddhism
• Saddam Hussein, 5th President of Iraq
• Hu Jintao, Chinese politician and the paramount leader of China
• Chiang Kai-shek, Chinese political and military leader who served as the leader of the Republic of China
• Genghis Khan, Mongol leader
• Emperor Meiji, 122nd Emperor of Japan
• Mohammad Mosaddegh, Iranian politician, head of a democratically elected government and Prime Minister of Iran
• Muhammad, religious leader, orphaned at age 6
• Nripendra Narayan, Maharaja of the princely state of Koch Bihar
• Saparmurat Niyazov, 1st President of Turkmenistan
• Li Peng, Chinese politician
• Puyi, Last Emperor of China
• Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli politician, statesman and general and the fifth Prime Minister of Israel
• Madho Singh II, Maharajadhiraja of Jaipur
• Seiwa, Emperor of Japan
• Nader Shah, Iranian rulers
• Reza Shah, Shah of Iran (Persia)
• Adi Shankaracharya, scholar, philosopher, reformer, Advaita Vedanta non-dualism
• Taixu, Buddhist modernist, activist and thinker who advocated the reform and renewal of Chinese Buddhism
• Theodora, empress of the Byzantine Empire
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Indian nationalist, teacher, lawyer and an independence activist
• Minamoto no Yoritomo, founder and the first shōgun of the Kamakura shogunate of Japan
• Zhu Rongji, premier of China

• Paul Eagle, New Zealand politician{{cite news |last=Murphy |first=Tim |url=https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/07/06/37613/the-sure-things-paul-eagle |title=The Sure Things: Paul Eagle |work=Newsroom |date=6 July 2017 |access-date=7 July 2017 }}
• Kamehameha III, King of Hawaii
• John McEwen, Prime Minister of Australia, at age seven
• William McMahon, Prime Minister of Australia, at age 8 and 18
• Frank Rogers, New Zealand politician{{cite news |work=The New Zealand Herald |page=3 |title=Likeable Rascal of House |date=26 April 1980 }}

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• Pope Adrian VI
• Alfred the Great, King of Wessex from 871 to 899
• Yuri Andropov, Chairman of the KGB and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
• Anna of Russia, Empress of Russia
• Anne of Brittany, French queen
• Anne, Queen of Great Britain, Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland
• Eleanor of Aquitaine, member of the Ramnulfid dynasty and one of the most powerful women in the High Middle Ages
• Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkish field marshal, revolutionary statesman, author, and the founding father of the Republic of Turkey
• Manuel Azaña, second Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic
• August Bebel, German socialist politician, writer, and orator
• Ernest Bevin, British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour politician
• Hans Böckler, German politician and trade union leader
• Charles V, ruler of both the Spanish Empire and the Holy Roman Empire
• Charlotte, wife of George III, King of England
• Albert Chmielowski, Polish nobleman, noted painter, disabled veteran of the Uprising of 1863
• John Church, clergyman, found as a toddler
• Pope Clement VII
• Clovis I, first King of the Franks
• Gaspard II de Coligny, Huguenot leader in the French Wars of Religion, nobleman and Admiral of France
• Saints Cyril, Byzantine Christian theologian and missionary
• Edward VI of England, orphaned at age 9
• Elizabeth I, Queen of England
• Elizabeth of Russia, Empress of Russia
• Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia, and Archduke of Austria
• Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, medieval monarch
• Hans-Dietrich Genscher, Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs and Vice Chancellor of Germany
• Countess Amalie Elisabeth of Hanau-Münzenberg, Landgravine consort and Regent of Hesse-Kassel
• Henry VI, King of England and France
• Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer of Germany, orphaned at 18
• Salvador of Horta, Spanish Franciscan lay brother from the region of Catalonia in Spain
• Ivan IV, Russian ruler, orphaned at age 8
• Joan II of Navarre, Queen of Navarre
• John I, King of Portugal and the Algarve
• Konstantinos Kanaris, Greek Prime Minister, admiral and politician, freedom fighter in the Greek War of Independence
• Rudolf Kirchschläger, Austrian diplomat, politician, judge and the eighth President of Austria
• Pope Leo X
• David Lloyd George, Welsh statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922
• Louis XIV, King of France or the Sun King
• Louis XV, King of France
• Louis XVI, King of France
• Maria II, Queen regnant of the Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves
• Mary of Burgundy, Duchess of Burgundy, reigned over the Burgundian State, now mainly in France and the Low Countries
• Mary, Queen of Scots, and of France
• Catherine de' Medici, Queen of France
• Philip Melanchthon, German Lutheran reformer
• Angela Merici, Italian religious educator
• Louise Otto-Peters, German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti
• Olof Palme, Swedish politician, statesman and Prime Minister of Sweden
• Peter the Great, Tsardom of Russia and later the Russian Empire
• Peter II of Russia, Emperor of Russia
• Peter III of Russia, Emperor of Russia
• Philip IV, of France, called the Fair or the Iron King
• Maximilien Robespierre, French politician during the French Revolution, orphaned at age 6
• Baal Shem Tov, Jewish mystic and healer from Poland
• Albrecht von Wallenstein, Bohemian military & political leader
• Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia, King of Bohemia from 1363 until his death and King of Germany
• William I, King of Prussia and the first German emperor

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• William Bradford, colonial governor, orphaned at age 7
• George Clymer, early American politician
• Jefferson Davis, American politician, and President of the Confederate States
• Frederick Douglass, African-American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman
• Peter Francisco, soldier, found on a Virginia dock as a young child
• Mariano Gálvez, Guatemalan politician, foundling adopted and raised by Gálvez family
• Alexander Hamilton, American politician, orphaned at age 13
• John Hancock, American merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution
• Ben W. Hooper, governor of Tennessee, raised in an orphanage
• Herbert Hoover, U.S. president, orphaned at age 9
• Andrew Jackson, U.S. president, orphaned at age 14
• Benito Juarez, Mexican president, orphaned at age 3
• George F. Kennan, American diplomat and historian
• Edward Langworthy, American politician, raised in an orphanage
• Moctezuma II, ninth tlatoani or ruler of Tenochtitlan
• Malcolm X, politician and civil rights activist, raised in an orphanage and foster care
• Christopher G. Memminger, German American politician, raised in an orphanage
• James Monroe, fifth President of the United States
• Eleanor Roosevelt, U.S. First Lady & activist, orphaned at age 10
• Joseph F. Smith, American religious leader, orphaned at age 13
• Tenskwatawa, Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe
• Pancho Villa, Mexican revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution
• Tom Vilsack, American politician, adopted at birth

• Túpac Amaru II, Peruvian leader, orphaned at age 12
• Simón Bolívar, Latin American leader, orphaned at age 8
• Pedro II of Brazil
• Eva Perón First Lady of Argentina

• Ingrid Jonker, South African poet

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• Kobayashi Issa, Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest
• Yasunari Kawabata, Japanese novelist and subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968
• Kenzaburō Ōe, Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature, Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994
• Natsume Sōseki, Japanese novelist
• Ouyang Xiu, Chinese essayist, historian, poet, calligrapher, politician, and epigrapher of the Song dynasty

• Thomas Bracken, Irish-born New Zealand poet, journalist and politician

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• Dante Alighieri, simply called Dante, major Italian poet of the Late Middle Ages
• Alfred Andersch, German writer, publisher, and radio editor
• Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author
• Achim von Arnim, German poet, novelist and a leading figure of German Romanticism
• Bettina von Arnim, German writer and novelist
• Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, post-romanticist poet and writer
• Thomas Bernhard, Austrian novelist, playwright and poet
• Hayim Nahman Bialik, Jewish poet
• Arrigo Boito, Italian poet, journalist, novelist, librettist and composer
• Anthony Burgess, English writer and composer
• The Brontë Sisters, English poets and novelists
• Albert Camus, French-Algerian philosopher, author, dramatist, and journalist
• Joseph Conrad, Polish-British author, orphaned at age 11
• Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German writer of formula fiction romantic novels
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher
• Jean Genet, French novelist, playwright, poet, essayist, and political activist. In his early life he was a vagabond and petty criminal, but he later became a writer and playwright
• Nikolai Gogol, Russian/ Ukrainian novelist, short story writer and playwright
• Yvan Goll, French-German poet
• Maxim Gorky, Russian and Soviet writer, a founder of the socialist realism literary method and a political activist
• Karoline von Günderrode, German Romantic poet
• Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm, German anthropologist, philologist, jurist, and folklorist
• Alfred Grosser, German-French writer, sociologist, and political scientist
• Friedrich Hölderlin, German poet and philosopher
• Joris-Karl Huysmans, French novelist and art critic
• Attila József, Hungarian poet
• John Keats, English Romantic poet, orphaned at age 14 and raised partly by his grandmother
• Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger, German dramatist and novelist
• Eugen Kogon, Historian and Nazi concentration camp survivor
• Jules Laforgue, Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet.
• Hugh Leonard, Irish dramatist, television writer and essayist, abandoned as an infant
• Mikhail Lermontov, Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter
• Thomas Mann, German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
• Harry Martinson, Swedish author, poet and former sailor, He was awarded a joint Nobel Prize in Literature.
• W. Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist and short story writer, orphaned at age 10
• Andy McNab, English soldier and novelist, found as a baby on the steps of hospital
• Montesquieu, French man of letters, political philosopher and judge
• Eduard Mörike, German writer
• Gérard de Nerval, was the pen name of the French writer, poet, and translator
• Seán O'Casey, Irish dramatist and memoirist
• Georges Perec, French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist and essayist
• Fernando Pessoa, was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher, and philosopher
• Abbé Prévost, French author and novelist
• Anatoly Pristavkin, Russian writer and public figure
• Jean Racine, French playwright, orphaned at age 4
• Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, writer and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate
• George Sand, French novelist and memoirist
• Albertine Sarrazin, French author
• Arno Schmidt, German author and translator
• Torquato Tasso, Italian poet of the 16th century
• J. R. R. Tolkien, English writer, poet, philologist and university professor, orphaned at age 12
• Leo Tolstoy, Russian author, orphaned at age 9
• William Wordsworth, English Romantic poet, orphaned at age 12

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• Edward Albee, American playwright, adopted as an infant
• Elizabeth Bishop, North American poet and short story writer. Effectively orphaned during early childhood, she lived with her maternal grandparents on a farm in Great Village, Nova Scotia.{{cite web | url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/elizabeth-bishop | title=Elizabeth Bishop }}
• Neal Cassady, was a major figure and muse of the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the psychedelic and counterculture movements of the 1960s
• Gregory Corso, was an American poet and a key member of the Beat movement
• Jan Kerouac, was an American writer and the only child of beat generation author Jack Kerouac and Joan Haverty Kerouac
• Mary McCarthy, American novelist, critic and political activist
• Herman Melville, American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period
• James A. Michener, American author, abandoned as an infant
• Sylvia Plath, poet, novelist, and short-story writer
• Juan Rulfo, Mexican writer, screenwriter and photographer
• Edgar Allan Poe, author, orphaned at age 2
• Theodore Roethke, an American poet
• William Saroyan, Armenian-American novelist, playwright, and short story writer
• Henry Morton Stanley, Welsh-American journalist and explorer, raised in a workhouse
• Gertrude Stein, American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector
• Dale Wasserman, American playwright, orphaned at age 9
• Pete Wells, American food critic, adopted as an infant

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• Cesária Évora, Cape Verdean popular singer
• Emmanuel Jal, South Sudanese-Canadian rapper
• Miriam Makeba, South African singer and activist

• Juan Karlos Labajo, Filipino singer, abandoned by father, and mother died at age 12
• Choi Sung-bong, singer of the Republic of Korea

• Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand soprano singer, adopted as an infant

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• Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer, orphaned at age 9
• Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist
• Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music;
• Alban Berg, Austrian composer of the Second Viennese School
• Anton Bruckner, Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets
• Josquin des Prez, French composer and singer of the Renaissance
• Christoph Eschenbach, German-born musician
• Paul Gerhardt, German theologian, Lutheran minister and hymnodist
• George Frideric Handel, German-born Baroque composer becoming well known for his operas, oratorios, anthems, concerti grossi and organ concertos
• John Koukouzelis, Albanian Orthodox Christian composer
• John Lennon, English singer, raised by aunt and uncle
• John Lundvik, Swedish singer, songwriter, and former sprinter
• Anni-Frid Lyngstad, Swedish pop and jazz singer
• Henry Purcell, English composer
• Mstislav Rostropovich, Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor
• Antonio Salieri, Italian classical composer, conductor, and teacher
• Franz Schubert, Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras
• Karlheinz Stockhausen, German composer
• Wilhelm Richard Wagner, was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor

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• Louis Armstrong, American musician, raised in an orphanage and by his grandmother
• Hank Ballard, American rhythm and blues singer and songwriter
• John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer.
• Charles Bradley, was an American singer
• Chester Arthur Burnett, better known by his stage name Howlin' Wolf, was a blues singer and guitarist, regarded as one of the most influential blues musicians of all time.
• Ray Charles, American singer, orphaned at age 15
• Ibrahim Ferrer, Afro-Cuban musician
• Ella Fitzgerald, American jazz singer, orphaned in childhood
• Kirk Franklin, American gospel musician
• James Hetfield, American singer, orphaned by cancer at 16
• Faith Hill, American singer, adopted as an infant
• Billie Holiday, American jazz singer, intermittently abandoned in childhood
• Al Jolson, American singer, comedian, and actor
• B. B. King, American blues singer, electric guitarist, songwriter, and record producer
• Eartha Kitt, American singer, actress, activist and voice actress
• Jenkins Orphanage, American band in US
• Mims, American hip hop recording artist, orphaned at age 13
• Sonny Moore, American electronic dance music producer, adopted as an infant
• That Mexican OT, American hip-hop artist. Orphaned at age 8.
• Trent Reznor, American singer, abandoned by parents at age 5 and raised by grandparents
• Jimmie Rodgers, American country singer
• John Rzeznik, American musician, orphaned at age 15
• Bessie Smith, American blues singer, orphaned at age 9
• Tina Turner, American singer, intermittently abandoned in childhood
• Tom Waits, American musician, composer, songwriter and actor. His father left when he was 10
• Muddy Waters, American blues musician
• Jimmy Wayne, American country music singer, homeless foster teen taken in by a couple in their 70s
• Z-Ro, American hip-hop artist. Orphaned at age 6.

• Víctor Jara, Chilean poet, singer-songwriter, teacher, theatre director and political activist
• Milton Nascimento, Brazilian singer, songwriter and guitarist

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• Michaela DePrince, Sierra Leonean-American ballet dancer
• Ger Duany, actor, among Lost Boys of Sudan
• Charlize Theron, South African and American actress and film producer
• Natasha Joubert, South African entrepreneur, model and beauty pageant titleholder

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• Rajesh Khanna, Bollywood actor
• Nadech Kugimiya, Thai model and actor
• I. M. Pei, Chinese-American architect
• Bianca Umali, Filipino Teen actress, commercial model and recurring dancer, orphaned at 7
• Preity Zinta, Indian film actress
• Tracy Perez, Filipino model, industrial engineer, and beauty pageant titleholder

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• Cate Blanchett, Australian actress and theatre director
• Guy Pearce, Australian actor and musician

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• Leon Battista Alberti, Italian humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer
• Max Beckmann, German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer
• Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress, orphaned at age 12
• Sarah Bernhardt born Henriette-Rosine Bernard; 22 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage actress
• Roger Bissière, French artist. He designed stained glass windows for Metz cathedral and several other churches.
• Gustave Boulanger, French painter, abandoned at the age of 14
• Rosa Bonheur, French artist, an animalière (painter of animals) and sculptor
• Lord Byron, English peer, who was a poet and politician
• Caravaggio, Italian painter
• Charlie Chaplin, English entertainer
• Coco Chanel, French fashion designer and entrepreneur
• Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau, a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic.His father, a lawyer and amateur painter, committed suicide when Cocteau was nine.
• Salvador Dalí, Spanish surrealist painter
• Jacques-Louis David, was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era
• Daniel Day-Lewis, English actor
• Edgar Degas, French artist famous for his paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings
• Eugène Delacroix, was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school
• Narcisse-Virgilio Díaz de la Peña, was a French painter of the Barbizon school
• Marlene Dietrich, German actress and singer
• Juliette Drouet, French actress, orphaned in childhood
• Anthony van Dyck, Flemish Baroque artist
• Albert Gustaf Aristides Edelfelt was a Finnish-Swedish painter noted for his naturalistic style and Realist approach to art. His father died while he was young.
• Barry Evans, English actor, abandoned as an infant, raised in an orphanage
• Caspar David Friedrich, German Romantic landscape painter
• Miloš Forman, Czech-American film director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before immigrating to the USA in 1968
• Greta Garbo, Swedish-born American film actress
• Paul Gauguin, French post-Impressionist artist
• Artemisia Gentileschi, Italian Baroque painter
• Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson also known as Anne-Louis Girodet-Trioson or simply Girodet was a French painter and pupil of Jacques-Louis David
• Francoise Hardy, French singer and songwriter
• André Heller, Austrian artist, author, poet, singer, songwriter and actor
• Alfred Hitchcock, English film director, producer, and screenwriter
• Hape Kerkeling, German actor, presenter and comedian
• Deborah Kerr, Scottish-born film, theatre and television actress
• Georg Wenzeslaus von Knobelsdorff, German painter and architect in Prussia
• Isaac Levitan, was a classical Russian landscape painter who advanced the genre of the "mood landscape"
• Adolf Loos, Austrian and Czechoslovak architect and influential European theorist of Modern architecture
• Peter Lorre, Austro-Hungarian-American actor
• Andrea Mantegna, Italian Renaissance painter
• Ian McKellen, English actor
• Michelangelo, Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance
• Molière, French playwright and actor who and one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature
• Lola Montez, Irish dancer and actress who became famous as a Spanish dancer, courtesan, and mistress of King Ludwig I of Bavaria
• Armin Mueller-Stahl, German film actor, painter and author
• Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter and printmaker
• Gabriele Münter, German expressionist painter
• Friederike Caroline Neuber, German actress and theatre director
• David Niven, English actor and novelist
• Edward Okuń, was a Polish Art Nouveau painter
• Laurence Olivier, English actor
• Parmigianino, Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker
• Francis Picabia, French avant-garde painter, poet and typographist
• Roman Polanski, French-Polish film director, producer, writer, and actor
• Oleg Popov, Russian clown and circus artist
• Neo Rauch, German painter
• Raphael, Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance
• Alan Rickman, English actor and director
• Géza Röhrig, Hungarian actor and poet, raised in an orphanage
• Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter
• Heinz Rühmann, German film actor
• Margaret Rutherford, English actress
• Egon Schiele, Austrian painter
• Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussian architect, city planner, and painter
• Oskar Schlemmer, German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school
• Rudolf Schlichter, was a German painter, engraver and writer. He was one of the most important representatives of the critical-realistic style of verism
• Joseph Edward Southall, English painter associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.
• Nicolas de Staël, French painter of Russian origin known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting
• Guillaume Taraval, French-born Swedish painter
• Joaquín Torres-García, was a Uruguayan-Spanish artist
• Margarethe von Trotta, German film director
• Marie Tussaud, French artist known for her wax sculptures and Madame Tussauds
• Ellen von Unwerth, German photographer and director, specializing in erotic femininity
• Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress and film director
• Lesser Ury, was a German Impressionist painter and printmaker, associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting
• Roger Vadim, French screenwriter, film director and producer, as well as an author, artist and occasional actor
• Gerardus "Geer" van Velde, was a Dutch painter
• Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, French painter
• Naomi Watts, English actress and film producer
• Stanisław Wyspiański, was a Polish playwright, painter and poet, as well as interior and furniture designer.
• Franco Zeffirelli, Italian director and producer of operas, films and television

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• Tallulah Bankhead, American actress, orphaned as an infant
• Buffalo Bill, American frontier figure
• Charles Bronson, Lithuanian-American film and television actor
• Hazel Brooks, was an American actress.
• Carol Burnett, American actress, comedian, singer and writer, raised by her grandmother
• Mary Cassatt, American painter and printmaker
• William Castle, American film figure, orphaned at age 11
• Henry Darger, American writer and artist (whose work focused on orphans), orphaned at age 13.
• Tommy Davidson, American comedian, orphaned as infant
• James Dean, American actor
• Benicio del Toro, Puerto Rican actor
• Cecil B. DeMille, American filmmaker
• William C. DeMille, American screenwriter and director
• Jane Fonda, American actress, writer, political activist and fitness guru
• Peter Fonda, American actor, director, and screenwriter
• Clark Gable, American film actor, often referred to as "The King of Hollywood" or just simply as "The King"
• Ava Gardner, American actress and singer
• John Garfield, American actor
• Judy Garland, American actress, singer and vaudevillian
• Bill Graham, German-American impresario and rock concert promoter
• D. W. Griffith, American film director, writer, and producer
• Gene Hackman, American actor and novelist
• Oliver Hardy, American actor of Laurel and Hardy
• Mariska Hargitay, American actress
• Ice-T, American musician and actor, orphaned at age 13
• Brian Jungen, Dene-Zaa artist
• Danny Kaye, American actor, singer, dancer, comedian, and musician
• Alan Ladd (September 3, 1913 – January 29, 1964) was an American actor and film producer.
• Veronica Lake, American film, stage, and television actress
• Art Linkletter, Canadian-born American radio and television personality and entertainer, abandoned as an infant
• Ray Liotta, American actor, film producer and voice actor, adopted at 6 months
• George Lopez, American comedian, raised by a grandmother
• Myrna Loy, American film, television and stage actress
• Lee Majors, American film, television and voice actor, orphaned at age 2 & raised by aunt and uncle
• Jayne Mansfield, American actress in film, theatre, television and Playboy Playmates
• Jayne Marie Mansfield, Playboy nude model
• Frances McDormand, American actress, adopted as an infant
• Marilyn Monroe, entertainer, raised in foster care
• Eddie Murphy, American comedian, actor, writer, singer and producer
• Mary Pickford, Canadian-American film actress, writer, director, and producer
• Priscilla Presley, American actress and entrepreneur
• Kelly Preston, American actress
• Anthony Quinn, Mexican-born American actor, painter and writer
• Julia Roberts, American actress and producer
• Jane Russell, American film actress and one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols
• Gene Siskel, American film critic, orphaned at age 9 & raised by aunt and uncle
• Barbara Stanwyck, American actress, raised in foster homes from age 2
• Barbra Streisand, American singer, songwriter, actress, and filmmaker
• Lana Turner, American actress
• Andy Warhol, American artist who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art
• Orson Welles, American actor and director, orphaned at age 15
• Jeffrey Wright is an American actor whose father died when he was a child
• Darryl F. Zanuck, American film producer, abandoned at age 13

• Ivian Sarcos, Miss World 2011, orphaned at age 8

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• Eusébio, Portuguese footballer who played as a striker and first world-class African-born players
• Guor Marial, Olympic runner, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan
• Victor Moses, professional footballer
• Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, African triathlete and advocate for the rights of the disabled

• Garry Kasparov, Russian chess grandmaster, former World Chess Champion
• Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, captain of the India national cricket team for the tour to England in 1946
• Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Indian cricketer and former captain of the Indian cricket team
• Greysia Polii, former Indonesian badminton player
• Milkha Singh, known as The Flying Sikh, is an Indian former track and field sprinter

• Layne Beachley, Australian surfer, she won the World Championship
• Jason Day, Australian professional golfer and PGA Tour member
• Jack Lovelock, New Zealand athlete, and the 1936 Olympic champion
• Wendell Sailor, Australian former professional rugby football player

• Alberto Ascari, Italian racing driver and twice Formula One World Champion
• Oksana Baiul, Ukrainian former competitive figure skater, World and Olympic champion
• Franco Baresi, Italian professional football player and coach
• Johan Cruyff, Dutch professional football player and coach
• Moritz Fürste, German field hockey player, Olympic champion 2008 and 2012
• Sepp Herberger, German football player and manager of the West German national team which won the 1954 FIFA World Cup final
• James Mason, Irish-born chess player, journalist and writer
• Declan McCormick, English Junior and British Youth Weightlifting Champion
• Paavo Nurmi, Finnish middle- and long-distance runner
• Jochen Rindt, racing driver, the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One
• Daley Thompson, English former decathlete, Olympic, World- and European champion
• Walter Tull, English professional footballer and British Army officer of Afro-Caribbean descent

• Simone Biles, American Olympic gymnast, adopted by her grandparents
• Steve Van Buren, professional American football halfback
• Nicholas Delpopolo, American judoka
• Édouard Fabre, Canadian marathon runner
• Scott Hamilton, figure skater, adopted as an infant
• Aaron Hernandez, American football tight end and convicted murderer
• Morgan Hurd, American gymnast, adopted as an infant
• Carlin Isles, American rugby star, adopted at age 8
• Colin Kaepernick, American civil rights activist and American football quarterback
• Lopez Lomong, U.S. Olympic track star, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan
• Greg Louganis, American Olympic diver, adopted as an infant
• Karl Malone, American basketball player
• Billy Mills, American Olympic runner, orphaned at age 12
• Babe Ruth, American baseball star, raised in an orphanage
• Gunboat Smith, Irish-American Boxer, grew up in orphanages around the Philadelphia area
• Jim Thorpe, American multi-sport Olympic and professional athlete, orphaned as a teen
• Jacques Villeneuve, Canadian professional auto racing driver

• Gustavo Kuerten, tennis player from Brazil, nickname as Guga, is a retired World No. 1
• Rivaldo, Brazilian former professional footballer

• Maud Chifamba, the youngest university student in Africa, orphaned at age 14
• Ibn Khaldun, North African Arab historiographer and historian lost both of his parents aged 17

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• Jean le Rond d'Alembert, French mathematician, abandoned as an infant
• Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-born psychoanalyst and a well-traveled author, narrator, and essayist
• Jöns Jacob Berzelius, Swedish chemist and one of the founders of modern chemistry
• Elizabeth Blackwell, British-born physician
• Sabina Baldoncelli, Italian pharmacist
• Ludwig Boltzmann, Austrian physicist and philosopher
• Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish natural philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor
• Henry Cavendish, British natural philosopher, scientist, and an important experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist
• Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish Renaissance mathematician and astronomer
• Benedetto Croce, Italian idealist philosopher, historian and politician
• Marie Curie, Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only one to win two.
• Charles Darwin, English naturalist, geologist and biologist
• René Descartes, French philosopher and polymath
• Arthur Eddington, English astronomer, physicist, and mathematician
• Willem Einthoven, Dutch doctor, physiologist and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Lodovico Ferrari, Italian mathematician
• Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist, pharmacologist and botanist
• Joseph von Fraunhofer, German optician
• Hans-Georg Gadamer, German philosopher of the continental tradition
• Fritz Haber, German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism
• Alexander von Humboldt, Prussian polymath
• Wilhelm von Humboldt, Prussian philosopher and public figure
• David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist
• James Hutton, Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist
• Edward Jenner, English physician and scientist, who was the pioneer of smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine
• Irène Joliot-Curie, French scientist second woman to win a Nobel Prize
• Immanuel Kant, German philosopher who is considered the central figure of modern philosophy
• Johannes Kepler, German scientist, raised by grandmother
• Antoine Lavoisier, French chemist and father of modern chemistry
• Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Dutch tradesman and scientist
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, German polymath and philosopher
• Hendrik Lorentz, Dutch physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
• Ada Lovelace, English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine
• James Clerk Maxwell, Scottish scientist in the field of mathematical physics
• John McDouall Stuart, Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers
• Dmitri Mendeleev, Russian chemist and inventor
• Gerardus Mercator, Geographer, cosmographer and cartographer
• Maria Sibylla Merian, German-born naturalist and scientific illustrator
• Gustav Nachtigal, German explorer of Central and West Africa
• Isaac Newton, English physicist and mathematician

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• Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher, writer, and linguist
• Richard Owen, English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist
• Blaise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Christian philosopher
• André Patry, French astronomer and discoverer of 9 minor planets in the late 1930s
• Emmi Pikler, Hungarian pediatrician and infant-education theorist
• Paul Ricœur, French philosopher, for combining phenomenological description with hermeneutics
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, raised by aunt and uncle
• Arthur Rudolph, German rocket engineer
• Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, orphaned at age 3
• Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher, writer, and activist
• Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher
• Georg Simmel, German sociologist, philosopher, and critic
• Adam Smith, Scottish moral philosopher and pioneer of political economy
• Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher of Sephardi/Portuguese origin
• Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher
• Wilhelm Wundt, German physician, physiologist, philosopher, and professor

• John Bardeen, American physicist and electrical engineer
• George Washington Carver, American scientist, inventor, orphaned while a slave
• Stephanie Kwolek, American chemist
• Linus Pauling, American chemist, biochemist, peace activist, author, and educator
• Percy Spencer, American inventor, orphaned in childhood
• Robert Taylor, American internet pioneer, adopted at age 28 days
• Blake R. Van Leer, President of Georgia Tech, engineer and United States Army officer

• Ian Karan, Tamil German businessman and politician

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• Roman Abramovich, Russian businessman and politician
• Gianni Agnelli, Italian industrialist and principal shareholder of Fiat
• Anthony Bacon, British iron pioneer
• Karl Benz, German engine designer and automobile engineer
• André Citroën, French industrialist and freemason
• Thomas Cook, English founded the travel agency Thomas Cook & Son
• Mario Draghi, Italian economist and central banker who served as President of the European Central Bank
• Jakob Fugger, German major merchant, mining entrepreneur and banker of Europe
• Alfred Krupp, German steel manufacturer and inventor, nickname "The Cannon King"
• Christine Lagarde, French Managing Director (MD) of the International Monetary Fund
• Wilhelm Maybach, German engine designer and industrialist
• Rudolf August Oetker, German entrepreneur
• Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate
• Mary Portas, English retail consultant, and broadcaster, orphaned at age 18
• Vidal Sassoon, British beauty products magnate, placed in an orphanage at age 7
• Hugo Stinnes, German industrialist
• Hans Wilsdorf, German-born British founder of noted watch brands Rolex and Tudor
• Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German general and aircraft manufacturer

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• Arthur E. Andersen, American accounting firm founder, orphaned as a teen
• L.L. Bean, American retail catalog magnate, orphaned at age 12
• William Boeing, American aviation pioneer who founded The Boeing Company
• Adolph Coors, German American brewer who founded the Adolph Coors Company
• August Duesenberg and Fred Duesenberg, German-born American automobile pioneers, designers, manufacturers and sportsmen
• Henry Ford, American founder of Ford Motor Company
• Samuel Goldwyn, American film mogul, raised by relatives
• John Hancock, American merchant, statesman and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution
• Howard Hughes, American entrepreneur
• Jenna Jameson, American entrepreneur, webcam model and former pornographic film actress
• Steve Jobs, American Apple Computer founder, adopted as infant
• Howard Lutnick, American CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, orphaned as a teen
• John Molson, 18th century Canadian brewer
• Tom Monaghan, American Domino's Pizza founder, partially raised in an orphanage
• Colonel Sanders, American businessman, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken
• Carlos Slim, Mexican business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
• Henry E. Steinway, German-American piano maker
• Levi Strauss, American Jewish businessman
• Dave Thomas, American Wendy's entrepreneur adoption advocate, adopted as an infant
• Madam C. J. Walker, American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and political and social activist
• Jerry Yang, Taiwanese American Internet entrepreneur and programmer

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• Kanō Jigorō, Japanese educator and athlete, the founder of Judo
• Oda Nobunaga, powerful daimyō of Japan
• Swami Rama, Indian yógī
• Natalya Stroeva, Russian model and beauty pageant titleholder
• Kazuo Taoka, one of the most prominent yakuza godfathers
• Minamoto no Yoshitomo, head of the Minamoto clan and a general of Japanese history
• Minamoto no Yoshitsune, nobleman and military commander of the Minamoto clan of Japan
• Lu Yu, ancient author of The Classic of Tea
• Osama bin Laden, founder of {{nowrap|al-Qaeda}}

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• Truganini, Aboriginal Tasmanian
• Archibald Shaw, Catholic priest and radio pioneer{{cite news|url=https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/shaw-archibald-john-8404|title=Archibald John Shaw (1872–1916)|first=J. F. |last=McMahon|year=1988|volume=11|work=Australian Dictionary of Biography}}

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• Roald Amundsen, Norwegian polar explorer
• Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, British Army officer, founder and first Chief Scout of The Boy Scouts Association
• William Blackstone, English jurist and political figure
• Zofia Potocka, Greek slave courtesan and a Russian agent, later a Polish noble
• George Blake, British spy who worked as a double agent for the Soviet Union
• William Bligh, British Royal Navy, command of {{HMS|Bounty}}, Governor of New South Wales in Australia and a colonial administrator
• Martin Bormann, prominent official in Nazi Germany as head of the Nazi Party Chancellery
• Johann Friedrich Böttger, German alchemist and the first European to discover the secret of the creation of hard-paste porcelain
• Guy Burgess, British radio producer, intelligence officer and Foreign Office official
• William Dampier, Englishman to explore parts of what is today Australia and pirate
• Karl Dönitz, German admiral who played a major role in the naval history of World War II
• Adolf Eichmann, German Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and one of the major organisers of the Holocaust
• Prince Eugene of Savoy, general of the Imperial Army and one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history
• Guy Fawkes, known as Guido Fawkes, member of a group of provincial English Catholics who planned the failed Gunpowder Plot
• Antoine Galland, French orientalist and archaeologist, most famous as the first European translator of One Thousand and One Nights
• Hermann Gmeiner, Austrian philanthropist and the founder of SOS Children's Villages
• Adam Griffith, American football player from Poland
• Mata Hari, Dutch exotic dancer and courtesan who was convicted of being a spy for Germany during World War I
• Kaspar Hauser, German youth who claimed to have grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell
• Rudolf Höss, Nazi German SS-Obersturmbannführer (lieutenant colonel) and the longest-serving commandant of Auschwitz concentration and extermination camp in World War II
• Wilhelm Keitel, German field marshal who served as chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, the OKW) for most of World War II
• Otto Lilienthal, German pioneer of aviation
• Luigi Lucheni, Italian anarchist who assassinated the Austrian Empress, Elisabeth
• Louis Philippe II, Colonel General (France) and member of a cadet branch of the House of Bourbon
• Ferdinand Magellan, Portuguese explorer
• John McDouall Stuart, Scottish explorer and one of the most accomplished of all Australia's inland explorers
• Erich Mielke, head of the East German Ministry for State Security (Ministerium für Staatsicherheit), better known as the Stasi
• Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
• Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, British flag officer in the Royal Navy
• Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer
• Elisabeth Petznek, nicknamed "The Red Archduchess"
• Albert Pierrepoint, hangman in England
• Grigory Potemkin, Russian military leader, statesman, nobleman and favourite of Catherine the Great
• Joseph Priestley, English theologian, English Dissenters clergyman, multi-subject educator
• Grigori Rasputin, Russian peasant and mystical faith healer
• Johann Philipp Reis, German scientist and inventor, he constructed the first make-and-break telephone
• Salvatore Riina, chief of the Sicilian Mafia
• Hartmann Schedel, German physician, humanist, historian, and one of the first cartographers to use the printing press
• Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist
• Richard Sorge, Soviet military intelligence officer during World War II
• Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut and the first woman to have flown in space
• Friedrich von der Trenck, Prussian officer, adventurer, and author
• Victor of Aveyron, French feral child
• Minik Wallace, Inuk anthropology subject
• Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian
• Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Field Marshal

• John Wilkes Booth, American stage actor who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln
• Nikolas Cruz, perpetrator of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting
• Dieter Dengler, United States Navy aviator
• Genie, pseudonym for a feral child who was a victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation
• Peggy Guggenheim, American art collector and bohemian socialite
• Calamity Jane, American frontierswoman and professional scout
• Caroline Kennedy, American author, attorney, diplomat and her brother John F. Kennedy Jr., American lawyer and journalist
• Billy the Kid, American Old West gunfighter who participated in New Mexico's Lincoln County War
• Robert E. Lee, American general known for commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War
• Jim Lovell, former NASA astronaut and a retired captain in the United States Navy
• Marisol Malaret, Puerto Rican TV Host, model and beauty queen
• James Naismith, Canadian-American, inventor of basketball
• Annie Oakley, American sharpshooter and exhibition shooter
• Lee Harvey Oswald, American former U.S. Marine who assassinated President John F. Kennedy
• Bonnie Parker, American criminal
• Robert Peary, American explorer who claimed to have reached the geographic North Pole
• Sager orphans, twice-orphaned American settlers
• Raphael Semmes, officer in the Confederate navy during the American Civil War
• William Tecumseh Sherman, American soldier, businessman, educator and author
• James West, Scouting leader, raised in an orphanage
• Paul R. Williams, American architect
• Aileen Wuornos, American serial killer
• Pancho Villa, Mexican Revolutionary general and one of the most prominent figures of the Mexican Revolution

• Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator and philosopher who was a leading advocate of critical pedagogy.
• João Havelange, Brazilian lawyer, businessman, and athlete who served as the seventh President of FIFA
• Tiradentes, hero of Brazil and patron of the Military Police

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See also :Category:Fictional orphans

• Amelia, The Star Money
• several characters in the American Girl doll series
• Frodo Baggins, The Lord of the Rings
• Bambi
• Banner, Bannertail
• Captain America
• Curious George
• Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, A Series of Unfortunate Events
• James Bond
• Nathaniel "Natty" Bumppo/Hawkeye, Leatherstocking Tales
• Cinderella
• David Copperfield
• Cosette, Les Misérables
• Sodapop, Darrel and Ponyboy Curtis, The Outsiders
• Eragon, Inheritance Cycle
• Esmeralda
• Rosa Esposto, The Lady of the Wheel
• Jane Eyre
• Huckleberry Finn
• Moll Flanders
• Dorothy Gale, Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights
• Heidi
• Tom Jones
• Kim
• Krabat
• A Little Princess
• Pippi Longstocking
• Stephen Maturin, Master and Commander
• Momo
• Mowgli
• Baron Munchausen
• Pip, Great Expectations
• Pollyanna
• Harry Potter
• Quasimodo
• Tom Sawyer
• Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables
• Snow White
• The Little Prince
• Daenerys Targaryen, A Song of Ice and Fire
• Tarzan
• Oliver Twist
• Lord Voldemort
• Doctor Zhivago

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• Admiral General Aladeen, The Dictator
• Allen Walker, D.Gray-man
• Alvin and the Chipmunks
• Edward Elric and Alphonse Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist
• Batman and Robin
• Bayman, Dead or Alive
• Erin Hannon, The Office
• Evey Hammond, V for Vendetta
• Finn the Human, Adventure Time
• Fox McCloud, Star Fox video games
• Goku, Dragon Ball
• James Bond
• Kenshiro, Fist of the North Star
• Po, Kung Fu Panda
• Lex Luthor
• Little Orphan Annie
• Magneto, X-Men
• Jann Lee, Dead or Alive
• Naruto Uzumaki, Naruto
• NiCO, Dead or Alive
• Paddington Bear
• Pi Patel, Life of Pi
• Punky Brewster
• Raiden, Metal Gear video game series
• Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Moon
• Shazam
• Snow White
• Sookie Stackhouse
• Spider-Man
• Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Star Wars
• Superman
• Will Hunting

See also :Category:Adoptees for lists of notable people who have been adopted (including by step-parents): many adoptees are neither orphans nor foundlings.

Category:Fictional orphans

Category:Adoption, fostering, orphan care and displacement