Chives are the only Allium native to both the Old World and the New World. The natural range covers temperate Eurasia from the Urals to Kamchatka, and in North America runs across Alaska, most of Canada and parts of the northern United States. Native plants favour river shores and meadows, while escaped garden plants also turn up in fields, roadsides and vacant lots, which makes native and introduced populations hard to tell apart.
The name schoenoprasum comes from Greek words for sedge or rush and leek, and chive comes from French cive, from the Latin cepa for onion. Use of chives is thought to go back 5,000 years, and in medieval Europe they were grown as rush leek. Native Americans used the bulbs and leaves to flavour fish, soups and salads.