Births
- March 8 – Carlo Gesualdo, Italian composer and murderer (died 1613)
- May 26 – Mehmed III, Ottoman Emperor (died 1603)
- June 19 – King James VI of Scotland/James I of England and Ireland (died 1625)
- June 20 (O.S.) – King Sigismund III of Poland (d. 1632)
- August 12 – Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain (d. 1633)
- September 1 – Edward Alleyn, English actor (died 1626)
- September 18 – King Sigismund III of Poland/Sigismund I of Sweden (died 1632)
- October 13 – Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork, Irish politician (died 1643)
- November 10 – Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, English politician (died 1601)
- December 11 – (baptised) – Manuel Cardoso, Portuguese composer (died 1650)
- December 20 – Edward Wightman, English Baptist martyr (died 1612)
- Pietro Cerone, Italian music theorist (died 1625)
- Giovanni Baglione, Italian painter and historian of art (died 1643)
- Jan Jesenius, Slovak physician (died 1621)
- Michal Sedziwój, Polish alchemist (died 1636)
- James Sempill, Scottish theologian (died 1626)