Choptank is an

unincorporated town An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

on the

Eastern Shore of Maryland The Eastern Shore of Maryland is a part of the U.S. state of Maryland that lies mostly on the east side of the Chesapeake Bay. Nine counties are normally included in the region. The Eastern Shore is part of the larger Delmarva Peninsula that ...

, in Caroline County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 129. The town was founded in the 17th century. It is located on the tidal

Choptank River The Choptank River is a major tributary of the Chesapeake Bay and the largest river on the Delmarva Peninsula. Running for ,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 20 ...

, which flows into

Chesapeake Bay The Chesapeake Bay ( ) is the largest estuary in the United States. The Bay is located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region and is primarily separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Delmarva Peninsula (including the parts: the ...

. Tradition has it that the name "choptank" was a crude Anglicisation of the Algonquian name for the river, probably in the

Nanticoke language Nanticoke is an extinct Algonquian language formerly spoken in Delaware and Maryland, United States. The same language was spoken by several neighboring tribes, including the Nanticoke, which constituted the paramount chiefdom; the Choptank, t ...

. There was also a group of Algonquians called the

Choptank tribe The Choptank (or Ababco) were an Algonquian-speaking Native American people that historically lived on the Eastern Shore of Maryland on the Delmarva Peninsula. They occupied an area along the lower Choptank River basin, which included parts of ...

.''Maryland: A Colonial History''. p. 22 The town is located at the southwestern corner of Caroline County on the northeast bank of the Choptank River, just north of where Hunting Creek enters the river from the east. The Choptank River flows southwest to the city of

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

and to Chesapeake Bay. Choptank Road leads northeast to the town of Preston and the nearest state highways, Maryland Routes 16 and

331 __NOTOC__ Year 331 (Roman numerals, CCCXXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Bassus and Ablabius (or, less frequent ...

Demographics

References

Census-designated places in Caroline County, Maryland Census-designated places in Maryland Maryland populated places on the Chesapeake Bay {{CarolineCountyMD-geo-stub