Recorded in a number of spellings including Cichy, Cichon, Cichosz, Cicecki (Polish), Tichy, (Czech) Tica, Ticic, and Ticaric, (Bosnian-Yugoslavian), and bearing a close relationship to the Russian surnames Tikhonov and Tishutkin, as well as the Ukrainian Tishenko, this is a surname of Polish and Slavian medieval origins. It derives from the Polish word "cichy" meaning calm, although its ultimate origins are from much further south being the Ancient Greek word "tikhon", meaning to succeed. Over the centuries changes of language and dialect have also lead to changes in meaning, aided in this case by a folk etymological association with a Christian bishop of Cyprus in the 5th century a.d. called Tykhon. His claim to fame would seem to be that he suppressed the cult of Aphrodite, and for equally obscure reasons he also seems to be associated with "calmness". The movement of Greek and biblical names north into Western Europe largely resulted from the impact of the Knight Templars, known to history as the Crusaders. With Greece as their base, the Crusaders lead no less than twelve Christian expeditions to free the Holy Land from the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. All were unsuccessful, but the survivors on their return home, took to naming their children with names from the region, in honour of the fathers exploits. "Political Correctness" being just as rife then as now, in a very short time, the vast majority of children in Europe were given Christian names, which in turn became popular "surnames".

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