Coffey

Coffey is a surname of Irish origin. It is an Anglicized form of the Gaelic Ó Caoimh, meaning “descendant of Caoimh.” Caoimh is a personal name historically associated with noble or gentle attributes, and the surname has been rendered in several spellings through Gaelic-English linguistic shifts. Today Coffey is the most common form in many regions, with Coffee as a closely related variant.

The name is widely found in Ireland and among the Irish diaspora. Through successive waves of emigration, individuals and families bearing the surname Coffey established communities in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other parts of the English-speaking world. The distribution reflects broader patterns of Irish settlement and migration in the 18th to 20th centuries.

Coffey also appears in geographic names in the United States, including Coffey County, Kansas, and the city of Coffeyville, Kansas. These place names reflect historical associations with people bearing the surname in those areas and are sometimes used as regional references.

Variants of the surname continue in modern records, with Coffee and Coffey as the principal alternatives. The name encompasses a broad range of individuals across many regions and does not denote a single lineage, profession, or domain.