The Chamaves are a people of Germania previously established in present-day Hamaland between the Lippe and the Yssel, they occupied the lowlands of Holland, north of the Rhine, in the 4th century.
Their real name would be Hamaves, the Romans often adding a C in front of the H. The word ham would come from the Germanic "haimaz" or home in English, hameau in French. Ham would mean hamlet colony, or hamlet. The Hamaves would be the men of the hamlets or settlements of hamlets, or settlers.
According to Ferdinand Lot, the tribe originally included the Salian Franks, and it settled in the 5th century in the Veluwe and the Sallant in Holland, abandoned by the Sallian Franks.