Cuffee


Cuffee or Cuffey is a first name recorded in African-American culture, believed to be derived from the Akan language name Kofi, meaning "born on a Friday". This was noted as one of the most common male names of African origin which was retained by some American slaves.
An example of the deliberate retention of the name after slavery is that of Paul Cuffee, an 18th-century Massachusetts freeman and shipping magnate. Cuffee rejected the surname of his former owner, Slocum, and replaced it with his father's Akan name.
Another Cuffee led escaped slaves against plantation owners in Jamaica in the early 1800s.