34.4348° N, 81.0284° W

CHARLESTON

Most Famous People Born in Charleston, United States

Notable people
749
Peak decade
1940s
Median birth year
1920
Most distinctive
Baseball 4.5×

Charleston's profile is frozen in antebellum amber: an outsized Lawyer and Judge class built by the planter bar that dominated South Carolina politics from secession through Reconstruction, with an Officer bench propped up by the Citadel and the Confederate officer corps. The smaller, stranger note is the Novelist thread — Charleston Renaissance writers like DuBose Heyward, whose Porgy became the seed for American opera.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Charleston during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1940s with 63 notable births.

What Charleston Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Politician is Charleston's biggest profession — 22% of all notables (166).

Charleston over-indexes on baseball4.5× the global rate.

Charleston under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.

  1. Politician166
  2. Football58
  3. Lawyer52
  4. Actor48
  5. Baseball38
  6. Basket27
  7. Painter19
  8. Music18
  1. Baseball384.5×
  2. Lawyer524.0×
  3. Judge123.4×
  4. Novelist103.4×
  5. Officer153.0×
  6. Basket272.9×
  7. Politician1661.9×
  8. Music181.7×
  1. Writer150.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Charleston's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

1700175018001850190019502000
  • Politics & Law
  • Sports
  • Film & TV
  • Music
  • Writing
  • Science
  • Other
All749
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Showing 29 of 749 notable people

0066 POET

Henry Timrod

1828 - 1867

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0087 MILITAR

Barnard Elliott Bee Jr.

1824 - 1861

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0094 JUDGE

William H. Hunt

1823 - 1884

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0125 POLITICIAN

James Skivring Smith

1825 - 1892

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0144 ADVOCATE

William Porcher Miles

1822 - 1899

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0191 POLITICIAN

Hamilton P. Bee

1822 - 1897

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0196 LAWYER

James Conner (general)

1829 - 1883

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0203 POLITICIAN

Thomas Caute Reynolds

1821 - 1887

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0218 THEOLOGIAN

James Petigru Boyce

1827 - 1888

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0268 BRIGADIER

Wilmot Gibbes de Saussure

1822 - 1886

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0291 DIPLOMAT

William Henry Trescot

1822 - 1898

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0297 WRITER

Julia C. R. Dorr

1825 - 1913

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0327 LAWYER

Charles Henry Simonton

1829 - 1904

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0350 MILITAR

Arthur Middleton Manigault

1824 - 1886

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0387 WRITER

Henry Clay Lewis

1825 - 1850

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0448 PHILOLOGIST

William James Rivers

1822 - 1909

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0460 OFFICER

Charles C. Tew

1827 - 1862

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0476 WRITER

Frances Elizabeth Barrow

1822 - 1894

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0502 POET

James Matthews Legaré

1823 - 1859

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0518 NUN

Harriet Starr Cannon

1823 - 1896

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0550 PAINTER

John Beaufain Irving

1825 - 1877

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0572 OFFICER

Thomas M. Wagner

1824 - 1862

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0608 SOLDIER

Thomas Pinckney (American Civil War)

1828 - 1915

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0612 PRIEST

Edward Bunker (Mormon)

1822 - 1901

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0615 MISSING

Joseph Henderson (pilot)

1826 - 1890

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0635 OFFICER

John P. Bankhead

1821 - 1867

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0660 JUDGE

Boston Jenkins Drayton

1821 - 1866

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0698 POLITICIAN

Thomas Young Simons

1828 - 1878

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0713 COMPOSER

Marie Siegling

1824 - 1920

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