Colbert was born in Washington D.C. , and was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, the youngest of eleven children of an Irish-Catholic family. His father, James William Colbert, Jr., was the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina, while his mother, Lorna Colbert (née Tuck), was a housewife. His family fostered a intellectual and religious atmosphere, and his parents told Stephen and his siblings that they could challenge the Church and still be considered Christian. From a young age, Colbert recognized that a Southern Accent was seen as negative, making the person seem less intelligent, so he worked hard to suppress his accent, imitating the news anchors on television.