"Coffee" as the name of a female slave

[Dan Goodman]

Joel S. Berson 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:      Re: "Coffee" as the name of a female slave
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 2/13/2009 03:31 AM, Margaret Lee wrote:
>> The West African day name for Friday is Cuffee/Cuffy (Twi language
>> of the Asante).
>
> But can that name be given to Friday's *girls*?  That was what was
> behind my question about the female slave "Coffee" in 1713.

There's a long tradition of giving girls male names.  Recent example:
Sean, in various spellings.  I believe Beverly and Shirley used to be
male names.


--
Dan Goodman
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