COFFIN

The surname Coffin is of both English and Norman French origin and was first recorded in England shortly after the Norman Conquest. It is still carried by a limited but historically significant number of families, especially in the British Isles.

Its earliest form derives from the Old French word cofin, meaning a basket or a chest, and the name was originally a metonymic occupational designation for a maker or seller of such containers, or for a person whose body resembled a chest in some way. The name first appears in English documents in the thirteenth century and the spelling has varied as Caffin, Coffyn, Chafen, Chaffin and others.

Some scholars propose an alternative derivation from the Latin word calrus – “bald” – which, through later French, became chauf with the diminutive suffix -in, giving the sense “the son of the Bald One.” The earliest record of this form is a reference to Richard Chaufin in the Hundred Rolls of Nottingham in 1273.

Medieval documentary evidence includes Henry Coffyn of Somerset in 1273, Richard Caffyn mentioned in the Pipe Rolls of Sussex for 1327, and Thomas Chafyn in the register of Oxford University in 1505. The name also appears in civil marriage records of the late eighteenth century: Thomas Coffin married Agatha Waterman in 1788 at St George's Chapel, Hanover Square, London, and in 1794 John Caffin married Isabella Blandell at the same chapel.

In England the surname is most strongly associated with the southwestern counties of Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, where it has been documented for centuries. An estate named “Coffin” is recorded in North Cornwall in 1535, and the family has a long tradition of residence in the Somerset village of Holford.

There is also a locational theory that the name was adopted by people originating from villages called Coffin in the French departments of Calvados and Calpmaine, although the occupational origin is considered more plausible. French‑speaking immigrants settled in Cornwall during the twelfth century, carrying the name to Britain; later secular and administrative confusion produced the spectrum of spellings now observed.

The surname crossed the Atlantic with the early French and English settlers who arrived in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The first records of Coffins in the United States appear in the late sixteenth century, and many bearers are linked to the Mayflower Pilgrims who settled in the New England colonies in the early 1600s. In the United States today the surname is most common in Maine, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

Canadian usage is concentrated in the Maritime Provinces, particularly in Nova Scotia’s Boutiliers Point, where descendants of British settlers from the eighteenth century are the majority of Coffins in the country.

The surname has been associated with social status and power: at various points it has been linked to the title of Baron and to families of wealth and influence, both in Britain and in the New World. Nonetheless, modern bearers include a wide range of social classes, and the name has largely passed from its occupational roots into a common family name.

In contemporary times the name continues to be most prevalent in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, with many individuals retaining the traditional spelling Coffin while others trace their ancestry to the wide array of variants such as Caffyn, Coffyn, Chaffin, Chafen and others.

Typical given names associated with the Coffin surname

Male

• Andrew
• Christopher
• Daniel
• David
• John
• Malcolm
• Matthew
• Michael
• Nicholas
• Paul
• Raymond
• Richard

Female

• Amanda
• Barbara
• Christine
• Elizabeth
• Emma
• Helen
• Jacqueline
• Linda
• Nicola
• Rebecca
• Sahar
• Sarah
• Susan

Similar and related surnames

Related and similar names are generated algorithmically based on the spelling, and may not necessarily share an etymology.

How to communicate the surname Coffin in...

Braille

⠉⠕⠋⠋⠊⠝

Morse

-.-.---..-...-...-.

Semaphore

Origin: English

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Religion of origin: Christian

Language of origin: English

Famous people named Coffin

• Clifford Coffin - Recipient of the Victoria Cross (1870 to 1959)
• Tristram Coffin - American investor (1605 to 1681)
• Kian Emadi-Coffin - Cyclist
• C. Hayden Coffin - Actor and singer (1862 to 1935)
• Geoff Coffin - Football player (1924 to 2015)

Names and descriptions courtesy of Wikipedia, and may contain errors. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every famous person with this name.

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