Chattell. Vide Cattell.
Chatwin, for Chetwynd.
Chaucer. Geoffrey Chaucer, the poet, married a daughter of Sir Paine Roet, sister of John of Gaunt's wife, and was valectus, or esquire, to Edward III. The family of Chaucer, Chaucier, Chaucers, or Chaseor, had been seated in the eastern counties, and some members were in trade in London. The name, Le Chaucier (Calcearius) may have arisen from some sergeantry connected with the tenure of land. Probably a branch of the family of Malesoures.
Cheek. William Cecus occurs in Normandy, 1198; and in Gloucester, 1189. Walter Chike of England, 1272.
Cheiley, or Ceiley, a form of Cilly. Vide Ceely.
Cheney. Vide Cheyney.
Chenoweth. The history of this name is of peculiar interest. John Trevelesick, according to an old London record, married Elizabeth Terrel. Their son, John, received from his father a tract of land upon which he built a house, and called the place "Chenoweth," doubtless from an oak grove or woods upon the land. The initial syllable of the name is not uncommon in the genealogical nomenclature of Normandy; and Cornwall is notably a land of Norman castles and druidical groves of oak. The Trevelesick family, as was a custom of the period, took the name of the place, and was henceforth known as "Chenoweth." This change may have been partly induced by the circumstances that there was a law which required the people to take names that were "easy" to the English. There seems to have been an early etymological connection between the familiar Virginian names "Chenoweth" and "Chinn." Vide Chinn, Cheyne, Chêne, Chenoie, and the Scandinavian suffix with. In a list of names from Domesday Book we note the following: Cheneuvard, Chenuard, Cheuvin, Chenut. The Chenoweths of Kentucky are from Berkeley County, Virginia, the progenitor of the family being a "fighting pioneer."
Cherey. (1) De Ceresio. The early form, Cerisy. (2) Also from Cheeri, William Cheeri of Normandy, 1180.
Chesney, from Quesnay, near Coutances; De Chesnete in England.
Chevalier (i. e. Miles), Normandy, 1180. Reginald Miles, England, 1272.