Family name origins & meanings
- English and French : metonymic occupational name for a basket maker, from Old French cof(f)in ‘basket’ (Late Latin cophinus, Greek kophinos). The modern English word coffin is a specialized development of this term, not attested until the 16th century.
- Tristram Coffin came from Brixham, Devon, to Haverhill, MA, before 1647. An important line of his descendants is associated with Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.