Charleston
An American place name with origins in the Carolinas region.
Name Census estimates that about 3,505 living Americans carry the first name Charleston. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 66.2% of registrations being male. The average person named Charleston today is around 22 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Charleston births was 2015 (343 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Charleston. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Charleston with official rankings and popularity over time.
People living today
3.5K
~ 1 in 97,790 Americans
Peak year
2015
343 babies that year
Average age
22
years old
2024 SSA rank
#2,791
Tracked since 1914
Census
Charleston in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,540 people with the first name Charleston, which placed it at #6,351 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#6,351
National first-name rank
People counted
2.5K
2,540 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.8
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
49.1% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Charleston
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charleston is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Charleston described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Charleston at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White49.1% · 1,248
- Black or African American35.7% · 908
- Two or more races5.6% · 141
- Asian and Pacific Islander3.9% · 98
- Hispanic or Latino3.1% · 79
- American Indian and Alaska Native2.6% · 66
Gender
Gender distribution for Charleston
Charleston is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 3,724 total registrations, 2,467 (66.2%) were male and 1,257 (33.8%) were female.
Charleston as a male name
- Ranked #2,791 in 2024
- 46 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (88 births)
Charleston as a female name
- Ranked #3,394 in 2024
- 46 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (255 births)
2020 Census snapshot
The 2020 Census sex table shows Charleston on both sides of the split. Of the 2,538 people counted with this name, 1,634 were male (64.4%) and 904 were female (35.6%).
Popularity
Charleston: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Charleston from the 1910s through to the 2020s, spanning 12 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 1,430 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Charleston remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Charleston by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Charleston during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Charlestons live
The SSA's state-level files cover 22 states and territories. Texas, Georgia, North Carolina recorded the most babies named Charleston, while Michigan, Arkansas, Minnesota recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 54 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Charleston
The given name Charleston is believed to have originated from the Old English word "ceorl," which means a free man or a peasant. This name likely evolved from a combination of "ceorl" and the Old English word "tun," meaning a town or settlement.
In the early medieval period, the name was likely a descriptive term used to identify someone who lived in a particular town or village inhabited by free peasants. Over time, it became a surname and eventually transitioned into a given name.
The earliest recorded use of Charleston as a first name dates back to the late 16th century in England. One of the earliest known individuals with this name was Charleston Sutcliffe, born in 1587 in Yorkshire, England.
In the 17th century, the name gained popularity among Puritans and Protestants, who often chose biblical or virtue-based names for their children. During this period, Charleston Heston, born in 1621 in Lincolnshire, England, was a notable figure who served as a Puritan minister.
As the name spread across different regions and cultures, variations in spelling and pronunciation emerged. In the 18th century, Charleston Whitworth, born in 1707 in Lancashire, England, was a renowned architect responsible for designing several churches and public buildings.
In the 19th century, the name Charleston became more widely used, and several notable individuals bore this name. Charleston Tucker, born in 1832 in Virginia, USA, was a prominent lawyer and politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives.
Another significant figure was Charleston Saunders, born in 1860 in South Carolina, USA, who was a renowned educator and civil rights activist. He dedicated his life to promoting equal educational opportunities for African Americans in the post-Civil War era.
Throughout history, the name Charleston has been associated with individuals from various backgrounds and professions, reflecting its diverse cultural influences and adaptations across different regions.
People
Charleston + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Charleston as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with C
Other first names starting with C with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Charleston: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Charleston?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 3,505 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Charleston going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 97,790 US residents.
Is Charleston a common name?
We classify Charleston as "Rare". It ranks above 95.6% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 3,724 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Charleston most popular?
The single biggest year for Charleston was 2015, when 343 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Charleston is about 22 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Charleston in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,540 people with the name Charleston, or 0.84 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #6,351 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Charleston in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Charleston?
The 2020 Census sex table shows Charleston on both sides of the split. Of the 2,538 people counted with this name, 1,634 were male (64.4%) and 904 were female (35.6%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Charleston?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Charleston is White at 49.1%. The next largest groups are Black (35.7%) and Two or More Races (5.6%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Charleston most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Charleston in the 2020 Census, accounting for 49.1% (1,248 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Charleston in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Charleston a male name?
Yes, 66.2% of people registered as Charleston in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Charleston still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Charleston in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Charleston can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How common is the name Charleston?
See how many people have the name Charleston on HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site built around that single question.