The English records show the name as Coffin, from which it was changed to Cophin, and it is also found as Kophin, Coffyn, and Coffyne. From Arthur's Derivation of Family Names, we learn that Coffin is in Welsh, Cyffin, which signifies a boundary, a limit, or a hill. In French, Caffyn, means bald. Coffin is also a word of Hebrew origin, signifying a small basket (coffer). Coffers were used in collecting the loaves and fishes after the five thousand were fed as told in Matthew 14:19. The name may have had its origin as an occupation such as a carpenter or maker of coffins. Before 1254 the Coffin family was flourishing at Portledge near the sea, in the parish of Alwington, five miles from Biddeford, England.
The following excerpt is from The Wells - Campbell Family Tree website:
There are a lot of colorful characters among the Coffins, including knights, sea captains, abolitionists, suffragettes, ministers, and brewers. One of our ancestors (Owen Coffin) was eaten by hungry shipmates at age 17 after his ship was rammed by a whale. The incident inspired the book Moby Dick, as well as Nathaniel Philbrick's book, In the Heart of the Sea (Viking Press, 2000). The word 'Coffin' appears to mean container or basket. The name appears to have originated in France, where the early Coffins may have been occupied as armorers and blacksmiths (1). According to some sources, the Coffin family lived in Normandy before 1066. One of the British seats of the Coffins, Portledge Manor near Bideford, Devon, is believed to have been granted to Sir Richard Coffyn, Knight, 'for valuable services rendered the Conqueror.' The earliest record of ownership for Portledge is from 1254; it is a deed in Latin. Around this time (1066-1307) there was a great deal of feudal, civil unrest in Devonshire. Portledge was held by the Coffins for 'six or seven centuries.'
I visited Portledge Manor in 1977, when it was a hotel. It is a big rambling building surrounded by green hills and oak trees. Ancestral portraits hang on the walls, and a coat of arms is set into the ceiling of the dining room. Volume VIII Number 3 of the Coffin Family Newslette rincludes an article about Portledge Estate. The estate was recently purchased by a private owner (Address: Estate Office, Portledge, FairyCross, Bideford, Devon, EX39 5BX) but is still accessible to Coffin family members. Tours and rental units are available. The nearby parish church at Alwington also has Coffin tombstones and memorial plaques. There are many records of Coffins in Devon, and it is hard to trace their lineages. A vicar named Nicholas Coffin (or Coffyn) lived in Devon in1337. Other Coffins of that era include Sir Geoffrey Coffin, of Combe-Coffin, around the time of King Henry III; Sir Elias Coffin of Ingarly, around the time of King John; and many different Sir Richard Coffins. A Sir Richard Coffin was the high sheriff of Devon in the second year of the reign of King Henry VIII. Around the same time, Sir William Coffin was a Knight under Henry VIII. He was married to Margaret Dymoke; it was her second marriage of three. Allen Coffin writes that Sir William's 'education and accomplishments were such that they introduced him with advantage to the Court of Henry VIII, where he came to be highly preferred.' He was an 'expert at feats of arms' (jousting), and was Master of the Horse at the Coronation of Anne Boleyn in 1534. He was also one of the gentlemen of the Privy Chamber of Henry VIII -- a 'man-in-waiting.' Sir William bequeathed his hunting hawks to Henry VIII upon his death, and was buried at Standon in 1538. His tombstone says: Here lieth William Coffin, Knight, sometime of the Privy Chamber of his Sovereign Lord, King Henry VIII; and Master of the Horse unto Queen Anne, the most lawful Wife unto the aforesaid King Henry VIII and High Steward of all the Liberty and Manor of Standon, in the county of Hereford, which William deceased the 8th day of December, in the Year of our Lord, 1538, the 30th of the reign of King Henry VIII.