Chatham
A locational surname from Chatham in Kent, England, originally meaning the “village of cottages” or a similar small settlement.
The #8,155 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 75,933 Americans shares it.
Etymology
This surname comes from the place-name Chatham in Kent. One 19th-century source explains the name as combining an Old English word for a cottage or dwelling with ham, meaning a village or homestead, giving the sense of a small settlement or “village of cottages.” As with many English place-based surnames, it was first applied to people who came from that locality.
History
Chatham became established as a hereditary surname after people began being identified by their place of origin. The spelling also appears as Chetham and related forms in older records. The name is best known today through the English statesman William Pitt, whose family took its title from the earldom of Chatham.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The earldom of Chatham made the surname famous through William Pitt the Elder, one of Britain’s most prominent 18th-century statesmen.
From the historical record
“Chernoc, in Normandy. CHATHAM or CHETHAM. Local From a town in Kent, England, on the Medway, so named from the Saxon cyte, a cottage, and ham, a village, signifying the village of cottages. A paragraph to the following effect went the round of the papers not many years since : Two attorneys in partnership had the…”
— An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names