Family name origins & meanings
- Americanized form of southern French de la Chaumette, a topographic name for someone who lived on a chaumette, a high, arid plateau with very little vegetation, derived from a diminutive of chaume ‘bare land’ (a specialized sense of Latin calmus ‘calm’, ‘unruffled’).
- Pierre de la Chaumette (born 1673) came from Rochouard, France, via England to Gloucester, NJ, in about 1698; in NJ he became known as Peter Delashmet. See DeLater he was joined by his brother Jean de la Chaumette, a wealthy colonist from Martinique and VA. Either this Jean or his nephew (Pierre’s son) became known as John Shumate. See <xref>Shumate</xref>.