# Chesney (surname)

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

An English surname from Anglo-Norman.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | Norman |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 4,491 |
| US rank (2010) | 7,413 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 68,748 people |
| Change since 2000 | +5.9% (4,239 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | not recorded |
| Variant spellings | Chainey, Chaney, Cheeney, Cheney, Cheyne, Cheyney |

## Etymology

From Norman place names meaning “oak grove” (cognate to French chênaie), from Picard quesne, from Vulgar Latin *cassanus, probably from Gaulish kassanos (“oak”).

## Who carries it

Share of people named Chesney 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) | 88% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 6.9% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.5% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.7% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.2% |
| Two or more races | 2.0% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Chesney in the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain.

## People named Chesney

- Kenny Chesney, American country musician
- Francis Rawdon Chesney, British Army general
- Dennis K. Chesney, American astronomer

## Similar surnames

Chesson, Chacon, Cason, Chism, Cosme, Casiano, Ciccone, Cogan, Chiasson, Cookson, Cousin, Chaisson.

## 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.