Chichester

Racial Origin – English
Source – A locality.     

The use of Chichester as a family name is a matter easily and obviously explained.  In its first use as such it was descriptive of the locality in which the individual lived.  There is a place of this name in England, and naturally persons migrating from Chichester to other sections came to be known in their new neighbourhoods as “John of Chichester” or “Robert of Chichester,” as the case might be.

Then, in the course of time, neighbors would come to regard the name as merely distinguishing the individual, and its meaning as indicating the place from which he had come several years before would not be foremost in their minds.  Hence the “of,” or its equivalent in the Norman tongue, would be dropped, and the individual or his sons would bear as their surname simply Chichester.

The place name, however, is combination of the Saxon given name of “Ciasa,” and the Latin word “castrum,” which means “camp” or “military station.”  The Romans, in the period before the Saxon invasion, built their camps in England, as they did elsewhere, as virtual fortresses.  They were structures which lasted, and which remained in existence long after the Romans had withdrawn.

“Cissa” was the son of “Aelia,” who founded the kingdom of the South Saxons.