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Updated June 9, 2019

Family name origins & meanings

  • Irish : possibly from a diminutive form of any of the Gaelic names mentioned at Coffee, but just as likely a reduced form of McCaughan.
  • The name was brought to Boston, MA, from Dublin, Ireland, in about 1721 by Michael Coffeen (1704–84), who, according to family lore, was press-ganged to serve as a sailor in a British ship and subsequently apprenticed to a Boston mercer.

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