- May 3 Bert Hopkins, Australian cricket fast bowler (20 Tests, 26 wickets), born in Young, Australia (d. 1931)
- May 3 E. B. Dwyer, Australian-born cricketer (Sussex), born in Redfern, Australia (d. 1912)
- May 10 Ivan Cankar, Slovene author, poet, novelist and playwright (Erotika, The Bailiff Yerney and His Rights), born in Vrhnika, Carniola, Austrian Empire (d. 1918)
- May 12 Harold, grandson of English queen Victoria
- May 13 Raoul Laparra, French composer (Alyssa), born in Bordeaux, France (d. 1943)
- May 17 Alban Collignon, Belgian sport journalist, born in Mechelen, Belgium (d. 1955)
- May 19 William King Gregory, Greenwich Village New York, American palaeontologist (mammalian teeth, evolutionary theory)
- May 20 John Owen Jones, composer
- May 26 Jack Root, Czech-American boxer (First world light heavyweight champion 1903), born in Frahelž, Bohemia, Czech Republic (d. 1963)
- May 27 Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski, Polish writer (Lenin: God of the Godless), born in Ludza, Russian Empire (d. 1945)
- May 29 Jan Ingenhoven, Dutch composer and conductor, born in Breda (d. 1951)