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.
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 baseball — 4.5× the global rate.
Charleston under-produces writer — only 0.6× the global rate.
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.
- Politics & Law
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Field: Judge Clear ×
William H. Hunt
1823 - 1884
William Johnson (judge)
1771 - 1834
Andrew Gordon Magrath
1813 - 1893
Alexander Campbell King
1856 - 1926
Richard S. Whaley
1874 - 1951
Edwin Warren Moïse
1810 - 1868
M. Blane Michael
1943 - 2011
Thomas McCants Stewart
1853 - 1923
Akim Anastopoulo
Born 1960
Falcon Black Hawkins Jr.
1927 - 2005
Joseph H. McGee Jr.
Born 1929
Boston Jenkins Drayton
1821 - 1866