[5][1] The name "Churachandpur" was transferred from the earlier headquarters of the district at Songpi to the present location,[b] and honours Churachand Singh, former maharaja of the Manipur princely state.

The name "Chura Chandpur" was originally given to the village of Songpi (24°20′04″N 93°39′09″E / 24.3344°N 93.6525°E / 24.3344; 93.6525) on the road to Tipaimukh (present day NH2) around the year 1920.

The name was coined in honour of Churachand Singh, the reigning maharaja of the Manipur princely state at that time.

[8][9] Songpi was also at a strategic height overlooking the valley leading to the Thangjing Hill, and used as the location of an Assam Rifles post.

In 1921, Gasper organised a feast to welcome back the labour corps workers that returned from World War I, to which Maharaja Churachand Singh was invited.

[14][d] The Khuga River Valley, the location of the present-day Churachandpur Town, was forested and mostly uninhabited at the time of the Kuki Rebellion.

[16] Prior to the Kuki Rebellion, the British had also allowed some number of Nepali ex-servicemen to settle in the valley and use it for grazing cattle.

[19] One of the first events of the Kuki Rebellion was to raid the Nepali graziers of the Khuga Valley on 28 December 2017, which was carried out by Thadous and Zous jointly.

The Japanese reached the Churachandpur area on 8 April 1944, and four battles were fought to the north of it, within Manipur, including one at Torbung.

[20] In 1947, on the eve of Indian independence, the British reinstated the administrative powers of the Maharaja of Manipur, who promulgated a constitution establishing a legislative assembly and a ministry.

Finding that the old offices at Songpi had been reused for other purposes, in 1949, the Manipur administration decided to construct a new town of "Churachandpur" to serve as the headquarters.

[26] With the rise of ethnic tensions during the 2023 Manipur violence, the Kuki-Zo people have increasingly spurned the name "Churachandpur".