Chiles
An English surname usually treated as a variant of Childs, ultimately from a byname meaning “the child” or “the young one.”
The #6,831 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 62,550 Americans shares it.
Etymology
Bardsley treats Chiles as a variant spelling of Childs, and connects both with a byname built on Old English cild, meaning “child.” In surname use, this likely began as a nickname or descriptive label for a young person, or possibly for the eldest son or heir. The ending -s may reflect a patronymic or possessive form, giving the sense of “son/family of Child.”
History
The surname is chiefly English in origin, though the form Chiles looks like a later spelling variant rather than a separate medieval name. It is not one of the commonest English surnames, but it appears in records alongside Child and Childs. Modern American bearers are likely descended from British families whose surname spelling varied over time.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Bardsley notes that the spelling Chiles may simply be a scribal or regional variant of Childs, showing how easily surname forms shifted before spelling became fixed.
From the historical record
“The form Childs and the cor- ipted Chiles seem to represent the patronymic i, as in Jones, Williams, Simmonds, Sec. Lower says,' InDoinesday the epithet Gild or Cilt is applied to several persons ofdistlnction' (Patr. BriL p. 59).”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances