There is no single agreed‑upon “first person,” but historians can say a few different things depending on what you mean by the question.

Clarifying “who was the first person?”

When people ask “who was the first person,” they usually mean one of three things:

  • The first human being to exist.
  • The first person in history whose name we know.
  • The first person we know more than a name about (a life story, role, deeds).

Each of these has a different kind of answer, and they come from different fields: science, archaeology, and written history.

From science: the first humans

From evolutionary biology, there was never a single day when two non‑humans had a clearly “first human” child. Instead:

  • Human beings evolved gradually from earlier hominins over hundreds of thousands of years.
  • Genetic and fossil evidence suggests Homo sapiens emerged in Africa roughly 200,000–300,000 years ago, from populations that slowly changed over time.
  • Every person alive today is descended from many overlapping ancestral populations, not one uniquely identifiable “first person.”

Because there was no sharp boundary, scientists cannot point to a named individual and say, “that was the first person.” Any such story is more myth or theology than scientific history.

From written history: the first person we can name

If what you mean is: “Who is the earliest person in history whose personal name we know from written records?”, then:

  • Many historians and popular science writers point to a Sumerian individual named Kushim , whose name appears on a Mesopotamian clay tablet from around 3400–3000 BCE, recording a barley transaction.
  • The tablet is essentially an ancient receipt; it lists quantities of barley and then a concluding line with “Kushim,” usually interpreted as the personal name of the official or accountant who verified the account.

So, in the specific sense of the earliest recorded personal name , a strong candidate answer to “who was the first person?” is:

Kushim, a Sumerian accountant or record‑keeper whose name appears on an administrative clay tablet from ancient Mesopotamia, dating to the late 4th millennium BCE.

Scholars do note a small caveat: it is theoretically possible “Kushim” was a title, but most modern discussions treat it as a personal name.

Other “firsts” people sometimes mean

Historians also talk about other “first” individuals, depending on the criterion:

  • First named author : Enheduanna, a Sumerian priestess and poet (about 23rd century BCE), is widely considered the earliest known author whose name we know.
  • First historically attested rulers :
    • Narmer (or possibly Scorpion I) in early Egypt, around the 31st century BCE, appears in both archaeology and later king lists as one of the earliest identifiable pharaohs.
* En‑me‑barage‑si of Kish (in Sumer) is an early king whose existence is supported by both the Sumerian King List and archaeological finds.

These are often discussed on history forums and in popular history pieces when people ask about the “first person in history we really know something about,” beyond just a name.

Why there isn’t one simple answer

Modern discussions and forum debates tend to emphasize that:

  • Evolution does not give us a single first human, so science cannot name the first biological person.
  • Archaeology and early writing give us only fragments, so the “earliest known person” is always limited by what survives—today Kushim is our best‑known earliest name , but that could change with new discoveries.
  • Different disciplines honor different “firsts”: first name (Kushim), first author (Enheduanna), first well‑documented kings (Narmer, En‑me‑barage‑si, Gilgamesh as a partly historical, partly mythic figure).

So, if you’re asking in a general curiosity sense, the most historically grounded short answer is:

In scientific terms, there was no single first human; in written history, the earliest widely cited personal name we know is likely Kushim, a Sumerian record‑keeper from ancient Mesopotamia.

TL;DR:

  • Science: no single “first person,” just a gradual evolution of humans.
  • Written history: the earliest known named individual is probably Kushim , a Sumerian accountant whose name appears on a 5,000‑plus‑year‑old clay tablet.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.