"Coffee" as the name of a female slave

[Herb Stahlke]

It's probably impossible to determine, but the day name in question,
at least along the central West African coast, is Kofi, which is a
common name.  Bill Welmers pointed out to me years ago, back in the
sixties, that the West Los Angeles telephone directory had about four
pages of Coffee, a name that was barely represented in other LA area
directories.  There was an article, also back in the sixties, the
details of which I don't remember, that discussed the use of Ashanti
day names in the Caribbean, where they were fairly common.

Herb


On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 9:26 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      "Coffee" as the name of a female slave
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In 1713 in Little Compton (then Mass., now R.I.) a female black slave
> was named "Coffee."  [Hull, "Female Felons: Women and Serious Crime
> in Colonial Massachusetts" (1987), 112; primary source Superior Court records.]
>
> I have read that "Coffee" was derived from a male day name.  Perhaps
> in this case the name was related to skin color; I wonder whether
> that was unusual.
>
> Joel
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org