diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
index 73fd526640212..342132513cc42 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.0.txt
@@ -1298,6 +1298,7 @@ Notice how we now instead output ``np.nan`` itself instead of a stringified form
 - :func:`read_excel()` will correctly show the deprecation warning for previously deprecated ``sheetname`` (:issue:`17994`)
 - :func:`read_csv()` and func:`read_table()` will throw ``UnicodeError`` and not coredump on badly encoded strings (:issue:`22748`)
 - :func:`read_csv()` will correctly parse timezone-aware datetimes (:issue:`22256`)
+- Bug in :func:`read_csv()` in which memory management was prematurely optimized for the C engine when the data was being read in chunks (:issue:`23509`)
 - :func:`read_sas()` will parse numbers in sas7bdat-files that have width less than 8 bytes correctly. (:issue:`21616`)
 - :func:`read_sas()` will correctly parse sas7bdat files with many columns (:issue:`22628`)
 - :func:`read_sas()` will correctly parse sas7bdat files with data page types having also bit 7 set (so page type is 128 + 256 = 384) (:issue:`16615`)
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx b/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
index 3870a55c22fd6..40aa03caa56eb 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
+++ b/pandas/_libs/parsers.pyx
@@ -132,6 +132,7 @@ cdef extern from "parser/tokenizer.h":
         int64_t *word_starts  # where we are in the stream
         int64_t words_len
         int64_t words_cap
+        int64_t max_words_cap    # maximum word cap encountered
 
         char *pword_start        # pointer to stream start of current field
         int64_t word_start       # position start of current field
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.c b/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.c
index 2fce241027d56..e46e1e85f1c81 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.c
+++ b/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.c
@@ -197,6 +197,7 @@ int parser_init(parser_t *self) {
     sz = sz ? sz : 1;
     self->words = (char **)malloc(sz * sizeof(char *));
     self->word_starts = (int64_t *)malloc(sz * sizeof(int64_t));
+    self->max_words_cap = sz;
     self->words_cap = sz;
     self->words_len = 0;
 
@@ -247,7 +248,7 @@ void parser_del(parser_t *self) {
 }
 
 static int make_stream_space(parser_t *self, size_t nbytes) {
-    int64_t i, cap;
+    int64_t i, cap, length;
     int status;
     void *orig_ptr, *newptr;
 
@@ -287,8 +288,23 @@ static int make_stream_space(parser_t *self, size_t nbytes) {
     */
 
     cap = self->words_cap;
+
+    /**
+     * If we are reading in chunks, we need to be aware of the maximum number
+     * of words we have seen in previous chunks (self->max_words_cap), so
+     * that way, we can properly allocate when reading subsequent ones.
+     *
+     * Otherwise, we risk a buffer overflow if we mistakenly under-allocate
+     * just because a recent chunk did not have as many words.
+     */
+    if (self->words_len + nbytes < self->max_words_cap) {
+        length = self->max_words_cap - nbytes;
+    } else {
+        length = self->words_len;
+    }
+
     self->words =
-        (char **)grow_buffer((void *)self->words, self->words_len,
+        (char **)grow_buffer((void *)self->words, length,
                              (int64_t*)&self->words_cap, nbytes,
                              sizeof(char *), &status);
     TRACE(
@@ -1241,6 +1257,19 @@ int parser_trim_buffers(parser_t *self) {
 
     int64_t i;
 
+    /**
+     * Before we free up space and trim, we should
+     * save how many words we saw when parsing, if
+     * it exceeds the maximum number we saw before.
+     *
+     * This is important for when we read in chunks,
+     * so that we can inform subsequent chunk parsing
+     * as to how many words we could possibly see.
+     */
+    if (self->words_cap > self->max_words_cap) {
+        self->max_words_cap = self->words_cap;
+    }
+
     /* trim words, word_starts */
     new_cap = _next_pow2(self->words_len) + 1;
     if (new_cap < self->words_cap) {
diff --git a/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.h b/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.h
index 9fc3593aaaf5b..c32c061c7fa89 100644
--- a/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.h
+++ b/pandas/_libs/src/parser/tokenizer.h
@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ typedef struct parser_t {
     int64_t *word_starts;   // where we are in the stream
     int64_t words_len;
     int64_t words_cap;
+    int64_t max_words_cap;  // maximum word cap encountered
 
     char *pword_start;      // pointer to stream start of current field
     int64_t word_start;     // position start of current field
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/parser/common.py b/pandas/tests/io/parser/common.py
index 18690a18f7cb3..67a3bd6f9b75e 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/parser/common.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/parser/common.py
@@ -458,6 +458,22 @@ def test_read_chunksize_generated_index(self):
 
         tm.assert_frame_equal(pd.concat(reader), df)
 
+    def test_read_chunksize_jagged_names(self):
+        # see gh-23509
+        data = "\n".join(["0"] * 7 + [",".join(["0"] * 10)])
+        reader = self.read_csv(StringIO(data), names=range(10), chunksize=4)
+
+        expected = DataFrame()
+
+        for i in range(10):
+            if i == 0:
+                expected[i] = [0] * 8
+            else:
+                expected[i] = [np.nan] * 7 + [0]
+
+        result = pd.concat(reader)
+        tm.assert_frame_equal(result, expected)
+
     def test_read_text_list(self):
         data = """A,B,C\nfoo,1,2,3\nbar,4,5,6"""
         as_list = [['A', 'B', 'C'], ['foo', '1', '2', '3'], ['bar',