Caffin History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

Origins Available:
England

The name Caffin comes from the ancient Anglo-Saxon culture of Britain. It was a name for a bald man. The surname Caffin is a diminutive derived from the Old French words chauf and cauf, which both mean bald. This is ultimately derived from the Latin word calvus, which has the same meaning. The words chauf and cauf are supplemented by the suffixes in or on, which have several variations and are two of the most common diminutive suffixes.

Early Origins of the Caffin family

The surname Caffin was first found in Dorset where branches of the family were found in Chettle and Folke. Chettle dates back to at least the Domesday Book where it was listed as Ceotel and probably was derived from the Old English word ceotel, meaning "deep valley." Folke dates back to 1244 where it was derived from the Old English word folc, which meant people, as in "land held by the people." 1

Early History of the Caffin family

This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Caffin research. Another 56 words (4 lines of text) covering the years 1600, 1602, 1627, 1628, 1641, 1666, 1668, 1688 and 1714 are included under the topic Early Caffin History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.

Caffin Spelling Variations

Only recently has spelling become standardized in the English language. As the English language evolved in the Middle Ages, the spelling of names changed also. The name Caffin has undergone many spelling variations, including Chaffin, Chaffinch, Caffin and others.

Early Notables of the Caffin family

Distinguished members of the family include

Thomas Chaffin, High Sheriff of Dorset in 1627; and Matthew Caffyn (1628-1714), an English General Baptist preacher and writer from Horsham, Sussex. "He was the seventh son of Thomas Caffin, by Elizab...

Caffin migration to New Zealand +

Emigration to New Zealand followed in the footsteps of the European explorers, such as Captain Cook (1769-70): first came sealers, whalers, missionaries, and traders. By 1838, the British New Zealand Company had begun buying land from the Maori tribes, and selling it to settlers, and, after the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, many British families set out on the arduous six month journey from Britain to Aotearoa to start a new life. Early immigrants include:

Caffin Settlers in New Zealand in the 19th Century

Mr. W. Caffin, British settler travelling from Gravesend aboard the ship "Hydaspes" arriving in Lyttelton, Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand on 28th October 1868 2

Contemporary Notables of the name Caffin (post 1700) +

Sir James Crawford Caffin (1812-1883), British admiral, son of Mr. William Caffin of the Royal Laboratory, Woolwich 3
Jean Alexandre Caffin, French Brigadier General during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars from 1789 to 1815 4

Citations +

Mills, A.D., Dictionary of English Place-Names. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991. Print. (ISBN 0-19-869156-4)
New Zealand Yesteryears Passenger Lists 1800 to 1900 (Retrieved 17th October 2018). Retrieved from http://www.yesteryears.co.nz/shipping/passlist.html
Wikisource contributors. "Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900." Wikisource . Wikisource , 4 Jun. 2018. Web. 31 Oct. 2019
Generals Who Served in the French Army during the Period 1789-1815. (Retrieved 2015, February 11) Jean Caffin. Retrieved from http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/c_frenchgenerals.html