 The municipality of Chiavenna contains the "frazioni" (subdivisions, mainly villages and hamlets) Campedello, Loreto, Pianazzola, and San Carlo.As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 7,263 and an area of .The name of Chiavenna, believed to derive by paretymology from "clavis" () referring to its pivotal position on the mountain passes between Northern Italy and the Posterior Rhine valley, comes in reality from a much older, pre-Latin (probably ligurian and certainly non-Celtic) etymon "klava", meaning fallen rocks of a mountain slip.