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: Writer Clear ×
Alexandra Ripley
1934 - 2004
Mary Lee Settle
1918 - 2005
Roger Price (comedian)
1918 - 1990
Walter F. Murphy
1929 - 2010
Louisa Susannah Cheves McCord
1810 - 1879
Catherine Gilbert Murdock
-
Sam Aleckson
1852 - 1914
Julia C. R. Dorr
1825 - 1913
Randy Cohen
-
Henry Clay Lewis
1825 - 1850
Frances Elizabeth Barrow
1822 - 1894
Helena Wells
1761 - 1824
Jeffrey W. Hayzlett
Born 1960
Lee Cohen Harby
1849 - 1918
Sallie F. Chapin
1830 - 1896