The name first appears in 1272, in a Latin deed that mentions “a certain new road which leads to the estate of Cziczman”. It turns up again in 1411 as Chychman and in 1598 as Chichman. A name in a document is not the same as a village, though: historians place the settlement itself in the first half of the fourteenth century, and the 1272 mention may describe nothing more than a track and a piece of ground. Čičmany was never a castle village either — it was held by minor noble families, the Turóczis, the Rakovskýs and the Jesenskýs, and later the Kubínyis and Serényis, which is one reason it was left alone.Meno sa prvý raz objavuje v roku 1272 v latinskej listine, ktorá spomína „akúsi novú cestu, ktorá vedie k majetku Cziczman“. Znovu sa vyskytuje v roku 1411 ako Chychman a v roku 1598 ako Chichman. Meno v listine však ešte nie je obec: samotné osídlenie kladú historici do prvej polovice 14. storočia a zmienka z roku 1272 možno opisuje iba chodník a kus zeme. Čičmany neboli ani hradnou dedinou — držali ich zemianske rody Turócziovcov, Rakovskovcov a Jesenskovcov, neskôr Kubínyiovcov a Serényiovcov, a aj preto ich nechávali na pokoji.
