The COOPER surname in the USA

Frequency Comparisons
	Total	Rank	Frequency %	Per million people
United States
United States (Current snapshot)	270,097	64	0.1	1,001
United States (1880 census)	59,671	60	0.119	1,193
Change since 1880	+210426	-4	-0.019	-192
Other Countries
Australia	19,862	43	0.122	1,215
United Kingdom	94,703	32	0.206	2,062

Top States for COOPER by Total
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
Texas	19,771	97	0.095	948
California	19,401	128	0.057	573
Florida	16,954	70	0.106	1,061
Ohio	13,025	53	0.115	1,147
Georgia	11,819	53	0.144	1,444
Top States for COOPER by Frequency
State	Total	Rank in State	Frequency %	Per million people
South Carolina	8,497	42	0.212	2,118
Tennessee	10,024	51	0.176	1,762
Delaware	1,365	47	0.174	1,742
Mississippi	4,789	56	0.168	1,684
Alabama	7,461	60	0.168	1,678

Notes

Total is the total number of people with that surname.
Rank is the position in the list of names ordered by total (eg, a rank of 1 means that it's the most common name, and a rank of 10 means it's the tenth most common, etc).
Frequency is the percentage of people with that surname.
Per million people is the number of people with that surname per million of the population.

'A figure of zero indicates that we don't have data for this name (usually because it's quite uncommon and our stats don't go down that far). It doesn't mean that there's no-one with that name at all!

For less common surnames, the figures get progressively less reliable the fewer holders of that name there are. This data is aggregated from several public lists, and some stats are interpolated from known values. The margin of error is well over 100% at the rarest end of the table!

For less common surnames, the frequency and "per million" values may be 0 even though there are people with that name. That's because they represent less than one in a million of the population, which ends up as 0 after rounding.

It's possible for a surname to gain in rank and/or total while being less common per million people (or vice versa) as there are now more surnames in the USA as a result of immigration. In mathematical terms, the tail has got longer, with a far larger number of less common surnames.

Figures for top states show firstly the states where most people called COOPER live. This obviously tends to be biased towards the most populous states. The second set of figures show where people called COOPER represent the biggest proportion of the population. So, in this case, there are more people called COOPER in Texas than any other state, but you are more likely to find a COOPER by picking someone at random in South Carolina than anywhere else.

Classification and Origin of COOPER

Region of origin: British Isles

Country of origin: England

Language of origin: English

Ethnic origin: English

Religious origin: Christian

Name derivation: Occupational Name

Data for religion and/or language relates to the culture in which the COOPER surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the language spoken, or religion practised, by the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Data for ethnic origin relates to the region and country in which the COOPER surname originated. It does not necessarily have any correlation with the ethnicity of the majority of current American citizens with that name.

Ethnic distribution of COOPER in the USA

Classification	Total	Percent
White (Caucasian)	190,040	70.36
Black/African American	68,227	25.26
Mixed Race	4,565	1.69
White (Hispanic)	4,159	1.54
Native American/Alaskan	2,053	0.76
Asian/Pacific	1,080	0.4

Ethnic distribution data shows the number and percentage of people with the COOPER surname who reported their ethnic background as being in these broad categories in the most recent national census.

Meaning of COOPER in historical publications

A name of occupation or trade. The name is also local, from Cupar, a town in Fifeshire, Scotland, which is derived from Cu-pyre, the inclosed fire, or Co, high, a beacon fire, or signal on the coast for ships. Pyre, a beacon fire, on a high place, is the origin of the word pier, a wharf or landing-place for ships; Danish, pyr and fyr, a lantern; ??, Greek, a fire; the whole landing-place in time was called the pier.

Arthur, William (1857) An Etymological Dictionary of Family and Christian Names. New York: Sheldon, Blakeman. Public Domain.

COOPER. The occupation — a maker of barrels, tubs, &c. ; originally from coop, to keep or contain anything, whether wine in a cask, or a hen in her prison. A-Sax. Itepan, ccpan. See Cowper. Le Coupere, Couimre, Cuparius, &c., H.R.

Lower, Mark A (1860) Patronymica Britannica: a dictionary of the family names of the United Kingdom. London: J.R. Smith. Public Domain.

Similar names to COOPER

The following names have similar spellings or pronunciations as COOPER.

This does not necessarily imply a direct relationship between the names, but may indicate names that could be mistaken for this one when written down or misheard.