Chatham
An English place name referring to a homestead occupied by huts.
Name Census estimates that about 197 living Americans carry the first name Chatham. It appears on both sides of the gender split, with 77.9% of registrations being male. The average person named Chatham today is around 15 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Chatham births was 2016 (19 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Chatham. 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.
People living today
197
~ 1 in 1,739,870 Americans
Peak year
2016
19 babies that year
Average age
15
years old
2024 SSA rank
#7,839
Tracked since 1984
Gender
Gender distribution for Chatham
Chatham is one of the more evenly split names in the SSA data. Of the 199 total registrations, 155 (77.9%) were male and 44 (22.1%) were female.
Chatham as a male name
- Ranked #7,839 in 2024
- 10 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2015 (14 births)
Chatham as a female name
- Ranked #15,711 in 2024
- 5 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2016 (7 births)
Popularity
Chatham: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Chatham from the 1980s through to the 2020s, spanning 5 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 100 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Chatham remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Chatham 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 Chatham during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Chathams live
Origin
Meaning and history of Chatham
The name Chatham has its origins in the Old English language and can be traced back to the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, around the 5th to 11th centuries AD. It is derived from the Old English words "cæt" meaning "a homestead" and "ham" meaning "a village or settlement." Together, these words formed the place name "Cæt-ham," which referred to a hamlet or village where farmers or peasants lived.
Historically, the town of Chatham in Kent, England, is one of the earliest recorded instances of this name. The town's name was first mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, a detailed survey of land and landholdings commissioned by William the Conqueror. The entry in the Domesday Book refers to the town as "Cedham," which is believed to be an early spelling variation of Chatham.
One of the earliest notable individuals with the name Chatham was Sir John de Chatham, a 14th-century English landowner and member of the gentry class. He was born around 1320 in Chatham, Kent, and held significant landholdings in the area.
Another historical figure with the name Chatham was William Pitt the Elder, 1st Earl of Chatham (1708-1778), a British statesman and Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1766 to 1768. He was born William Pitt in Westminster, London, and was later granted the title Earl of Chatham in recognition of his distinguished military and political career.
In the literary world, one of the most renowned individuals with the name Chatham was Sir Thomas Chatham (1582-1638), an English poet and playwright during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He was born in London and is best known for his plays, including "The Tragedy of Hoffmann" and "The Humorous Courtier."
Another notable figure was Sir Edward Chatham (1610-1672), an English naval officer and explorer who served in the Royal Navy during the 17th century. He was born in Chatham, Kent, and played a significant role in exploring and mapping the coastlines of North America and the Caribbean.
Finally, in the realm of science, Sir Joseph Chatham (1842-1919) was a prominent British chemist and inventor. He was born in Manchester and made significant contributions to the field of organic chemistry, including the development of synthetic dyes and explosives.
People
Chatham + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Chatham 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
Chatham: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Chatham?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 197 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Chatham 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 1,739,870 US residents.
Is Chatham a common name?
We classify Chatham as "Very Rare". It ranks above 74% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 199 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Chatham most popular?
The single biggest year for Chatham was 2016, when 19 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Chatham is about 15 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
Is Chatham a male name?
Yes, 77.9% of people registered as Chatham 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.
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.