Coffee
A surname with several possible roots, most often explained as an Irish name anglicized from O'Cobhthaigh.
The #5,585 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 49,614 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The strongest historical explanation treats Coffee as an anglicized form of the Irish surname O'Cobhthaigh, often also written Coffey or Caughey. In that tradition, the name is linked to an old Irish personal name, though 19th-century writers sometimes gave different spellings and interpretations. Other antiquarian explanations tried to connect it with Old English or even with a word related to Latin calvus, 'bald,' but these are less secure and should be treated cautiously.
History
The name appears in English-language records under several spellings, especially Coffee, Coffey, and Caughey. In Ireland it is commonly associated with the Gaelic family name O'Cobhthaigh, which was later anglicized in multiple ways. Some older English surname dictionaries also proposed unrelated explanations, showing that the name's origin was debated in early scholarship.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
Nineteenth-century surname writers disagreed enough about Coffee that some linked it to an Irish family name, while others tried to connect it to a priest named Coifi or to a word meaning 'bald.'
From the historical record
“H.R. COFFEE. COAFFEE. COFFEY. May be local, or may be of common origin with Coffin, Cnffin, &c., the root being Lat. calvus, bald. ''Coffee," says Ferguson, "I take to be the same as Coifi, the name of a converted heathen priest, who, on the re- ception of Cliristianit)'' by the people of Northunibria, undertook…”
— Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom