CHASE

Chase is an English surname of the British Isles, originally recorded in the country of England. The name is derived from the Middle English word chace, which means “hunt” or “to chase.” It is therefore linked to the activities and environment associated with the pursuit of game and animals.

The surname can be understood in several interrelated ways. It may have arisen as a nickname for an individual who was noted for an enjoyment of and skill in hunting. Alternately, it could have been a metonymic occupational name for a huntsman or gamekeeper. A third possibility is that it was topographic, referring to someone who lived near a hunting ground or other place where game was pursued.

The earliest documented spellings of the name appear in the early fourteenth century. The first known instance is a person named Robert Chace in the Subsidy Rolls of Essex in 1327, during the reign of King Edward III. Later, a man named John Chase is recorded in the 1393 Register of the Freemen of the City of York, providing further evidence of the surname’s presence in medieval England.

Records from London church registers give additional details of members of the Chase family in the sixteenth century. For example, the christening of Margery, daughter of Thomas and Catherine Chase, took place on 12 December 1545 at St. Abbots, Kensington; the christening of Henry, son of Richard and Joan Chase, occurred in 1569 at Willesden; and the marriage of John Chase to Ales Hammon was recorded on 4 January 1567 at St. Mary Aldermary.

Among the more recent notable bearers of the name is John Chase (1810–1879), a water‑colour painter documented in the Dictionary of National Biography. He exhibited chiefly architectural views between 1826 and 1878, contributing to the visual record of his era.

The Chase family’s heraldry consists of a red shield on which four gold crosslets are placed two and two. A blue lion passant is positioned on a cant or within the crosslets. This coat of arms, granted to the family, serves as a visual summarisation of the name’s historical identity.

Typical given names associated with the Chase surname

Male

• Andrew
• David
• James
• John
• Michael
• Paul
• Peter
• Richard
• Robert
• Stephen

Female

• Alison
• Elizabeth
• Emma
• Helen
• Julie
• Karen
• Katherine
• Margaret
• Sarah
• Susan
• Suzanne
• Victoria

Similar and related surnames

Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.

How to communicate the surname Chase in...

Braille

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Morse

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Semaphore

Surname type: Location or geographical feature

Origin: English

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Religion of origin: Christian

Language of origin: English

Famous people named Chase

• Chevy Chase - American comedian, writer, and television and film actor
• Lorraine Chase - Actress
• James Hadley Chase - Writer of fiction, mostly thrillers (1906 to 1985)
• Richard Chase - American serial killer and cannibal (1950 to 1980)
• Beatrice Chase - Writer (1874 to 1955)
• Arthur Adalbert Chase - Bicycle racer (1874 to 1)

Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.

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