List of Famous people born in May

Steven David Levitt is an American economist and co-author of the best-selling book Freakonomics and its sequels. Levitt was the winner of the 2003 John Bates Clark Medal for his work in the field of crime, and is currently the William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago as well as the Faculty Director and Co-Founder of the Center for Radical Innovation for Social Change at the University of Chicago. He was co-editor of the Journal of Political Economy published by the University of Chicago Press until December 2007. In 2009, Levitt co-founded TGG Group, a business and philanthropy consulting company. He was chosen as one of Time magazine's "100 People Who Shape Our World" in 2006. A 2011 survey of economics professors named Levitt their fourth favorite living economist under the age of 60, after Paul Krugman, Greg Mankiw and Daron Acemoglu.

John "Shôn" Eirwyn Ffowcs Williams was Emeritus Rank Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and a former Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1996–2002). He may be best known for his contributions to Aeroacoustics, in particular for his work on Concorde. Together with one of his students, David Hawkings, he introduced the far-field integration method in computational aeroacoustics based on Lighthill's acoustic analogy, known as the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings analogy.

Abraham Henry Foxman is an American lawyer and activist. He served as the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League from 1987 to 2015, and is currently the League's National Director Emeritus. In March 2016, he became Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City in order to lead its efforts on antisemitism.

Jonas Grethlein is a German scholar of Ancient Greek literature. Having received a doctorate from the University of Freiburg, he is a professor of Ancient Greek at Heidelberg University. His academic work has focused on Greek tragedy, the Homeric epics, narratology, and historiography. In 2012, he was awarded a Starting Grant of about €1.4 Million by the European Research Council.

Colette Avital is a Romanian-Israeli diplomat and politician. She served as a member of the Knesset for the Labor Party and One Israel between 1999 and 2009.

Joanna Ayela Aleh is a New Zealand sailor. She is a national champion, a former world champion, and an Olympic gold medallist.

Nobuhiro Suwa is a Japanese film director working in Japan and France. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University.