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Updated June 9, 2019

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.

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