Cheboygan County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the population was 26,152. The county seat is Cheboygan. The county boundaries were set off in 1840 and county government organized in 1853.The name of the county shares the same origin as that of the Cheboygan River, although the precise meaning is no longer known. It may have come from an Ojibwe word zhaabonigan meaning "sewing needle".