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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • English (of Norman origin) : descriptive nickname for a bald man, from Middle English chaffin, a diminutive of Old French chauf ‘bald’ (Latin calvus).
  • All present-day English bearers of the name Chaffin are descended from John Chaffin (died 1658), a blacksmith of Bruton, Somerset. The surname is now much more common in America than in England.

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