Chon
A name found in French records, probably a shortened or altered form of an older personal name rather than a true occupational surname.
The #8,981 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 84,750 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The historical excerpts point most strongly to French usage, where Chon appears alongside names like Chonneaux and Cuny as part of a cluster of forms likely connected to older given names. The exact root is not firmly established in the excerpts, but the name looks like a shortened or regional variant that developed from a personal-name base rather than from a place or occupation. Nineteenth-century surname writers often linked such forms to medieval diminutives or nicknames, though the precise source for Chon itself is uncertain.
History
The name is rare in modern U.S. records but has older French attestations, and one cited source groups Chon with other French surname forms. Because the surviving evidence here is fragmentary, it is safest to treat Chon as a surname of French background that may have arisen through dialect spelling, shortening, or diminutive formation. The historical material does not give a single agreed derivation, so its exact development remains unclear.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
One of the cited nineteenth-century reference works lists Chon among several French surnames grouped together under related name forms, suggesting it was already recognized as a distinct but uncommon family name.
From the historical record
“Chnn Uenyn, co. Camb.. 1373, A. Chon Fimme, eo. Comb., ibid. Chun Pinw, co. Camb,, ibid. William Chaan, ca. Line, ibid. .yt^OOglC”
— A Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, with special American instances