Family name origins & meanings
- English : occupational name for a merchant or trader, Middle English chapman, Old English cēapmann, a compound of cēap ‘barter’, ‘bargain’, ‘price’, ‘property’ + mann ‘man’.
- This name was brought independently to North America from England by numerous different bearers from the 17th century onward. John Chapmen (sic) was one of the free planters who assented to the ‘Fundamental Agreement’ of the New Haven Colony on June 4, 1639.