Kecoughtan in Virginia was originally named Kikotan (also spelled Kecoughtan and Kikowtan), presumably a word for the native americans living there when the English colonists arrived in the Hampton Roads area in 1607. They were friendly to the English, but Sir Thomas Gates either worried about safety (including potential attack by the Spaniards and the Dutch) or coveted their corn fields after the "starving time" of the 1609-10 winter. The English seized their land while the men were out hunting, and for some reason the natives never attacked the settlement in response.

While Kecoughtan was never an incorporated town, the area was continuously occupied after 1610, it became part of Elizabeth River Shire in 1634, and Elizabeth City County in 1637. It later became part of the incorporated Town of Hampton, which later became an independent city. Elizabeth City County and the neighboring historic incorporated town of Phoebus agreed to a consolidation with Hampton in 1952, forming the current City of Hampton.

Through the Kecoughtan settlement, Hampton is the home of the oldest continually occupied English settlement in North America.