The short answer is: no one knows for sure, but there are a few leading folk explanations for the name “chess pie.”

Main naming theories

• Many food historians think “chess pie” evolved from “cheese pie” or “cheesecake pie,” since early English and colonial recipes used “cheese” or “cheesecake” to describe curd‑like, custardy pies (often without actual cheese), and the name likely slurred over time into “chess pie.”

• Another very popular Southern story is that when someone asked what kind of pie it was, the cook said “It’s just pie,” which in a strong Southern accent (“jes’ pie”) could easily be heard as “chess pie.”

Storage and ingredient stories

• Some explanations link the name to old “pie chests” or “pie safes”: because the pie is very sweet and keeps well at room temperature, it could be stored in a chest, so “chest pie” may have gradually shifted to “chess pie.”

• A less common theory says the name comes from chestnut meal once used as a thickener, suggesting “chestnut pie” or similar terms may have morphed into “chess pie.”

What scholars agree on

Food writers and historians generally agree that:

• The dessert is Southern in reputation but likely connected to older English “cheese” or custard pies.

• “Chess” is almost certainly a corruption or evolution of another word (cheese, chest, chestnut, or “just”), and there is no single, definitively proven origin story.