What's in a name? Silvertown in Chesapeake

James Cuffee, 85, tells a story about brothers who once lived in the rural Long Ridge area of Chesapeake.

"It was about three of them Cuffee boys," he said. "One spelled his name Cuffee and another Cufey."

So it doesn't surprise James Cuffee much when a family's name has been shortened or misspelled as it passed from generation to generation, census to census.

It might be the reason Silvertown Avenue is the road that travels through the historical Sivillstown area of Chesapeake.

Few noticed.

"I hadn't really paid that much attention because it sounded the same," said Cuffee, who was raised in Sivillstown. "The main road going in there is 'Silvertown,' but it's not spelled like the family name 'Sivills.' I don't know who did that."

Cuffee lived there until he was 18, when he moved to Norfolk. It was mostly an African American community of small farms. The Cuffees lived across from the Smiths. All around were Sivills.

"There were a whole lot of Sivills that lived there, so they called it Sivillstown," he said. "Up the road a little further, they called it Cuffeetown. Some of them still there, the grandkids and stuff like that."

John Hopkins, (757) 222-5221, john.hopkins@pilotonline.com