# Cheatham (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cheatham/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 12,852 |
| US rank (2010) | 2,802 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 24,023 people |
| Change since 2000 | +3.6% (12,403 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈtʃiːtəm/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

From Middle English, variant of Cheetham, from historical Cheetham in Lancashire, from Chet + ham; first element from Brythonic/Celtic *cęd (“wood, forest”), from Proto-Celtic *kaitos, from Proto-Indo-European *kayt-, *ḱayt- (“forest, wasteland, pasture”), related to Latin bū-cētum (“pastureland”, literally “cow-pasture”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cheatham in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 56% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 38% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.3% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.3% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.5% |
| Two or more races | 2.6% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cheatham in the United States.

## People named Cheatham

- Maree Cheatham, American actress
- Oliver Cheatham, American singer (1948-2013)
- Doc Cheatham, American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader (1905-1997)
- Zylan Cheatham, American basketball player (born 1995)

## Similar surnames

Chatham, Cotton, Cadena, Cedeno, Cotten, Caton, Cowden, Cauthen, Catania, Cawthon, Cayton, Cayetano.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.