"What's in a Name" Surname Index

Contents & Site Map

What's in a Name ?

COOPER (Part Two)

This name has already been the subject of a previous article. There it was shown to have been an occupational name and that there were considerable variations in the spelling. These variations, it was explained, were not always based upon "cooper" meaning "one who makes barrels" but almost as often upon other words of similar form.

These forms have generated surnames in which the original spelling has been supplanted by lettering derived from "cooper". Specific examples will make this point more clear.

Families who are able to lay claim to Scots ancestry and whose name is "Cooper" or one of its permutations, might very well once have been called "Cupar" from the place of the same name in the County of Fife. It lies nine miles to the West of St. Andrews.

The exact meaning can no longer be ascertained, but it is believed to be of Pictish origin. Attempts to relate it to the word "cope" or "copp" - which occurs in several place-names - is, in this case, questionable. It means "top" in the sense of "summit", whereas "Cupar" lies in a river valley (River Eden).

This fact is very evident in that not only does the railway line from Edinburgh to Dundee follow this route, taking advantage of the level terrain, but also that the Town itself stands at the junction of at least five highways. It provided the surname for a man identified as Salamone de Cupir (1245) and it was once heavily concentrated in Fife until about the 1400's and then spread.

If bearers of the name have records which show that their name was written "Couper" or "Couper" then this may very well be where their name originated. The spelling "Cowper", especially if there is a Scots connection, may also be significant.

A source much nearer home, here in Derbyshire, is a village in Lancashire called "Copp". It lies due south of Great Eccleston at the apex of an imaginary triangle projected from Blackpool and Fleetwood. Here its meaning can definitely be established as that of "hill" or "ridge". It is directly related to the words which gave us "cup" and, by extension "cooper", as was described in the previous article. It can quickly be identified also with the German "kopf" meaning "head".

Here the geography endorses the designation. The settlement is within the 50 foot contour line and "Copp" itself stands on an elevation given as being 81 feet above sea-level. Here, the "hill", which in reality is a [arrow ridge, can be liscerned, justifying the tame. Hence a native noving away from 'Copp" could conceivably have been dentified among his new neighbours as "the man from Copp" and, later, as "Copper", which under he influence of similar sounding names could lave modified into 'Cooper" etc.

Although it is not immediately obvious, the surname based on "copper" - that is to say, the metal - also began as a place- name. In the Ancient World the principal source of that mineral was the Island of Cyprus. It was at first known as "the Cyprus metal" or "Cyprium" but by the dates of the later Roman Empire the word had modified into "cumprum".

The passage into English took many forms. The poet Chaucer referred to it as "coper" (1386) and Mallory used "coupar" (1485). Of considerable interest is an inventory of the ornaments of a church in Staffordshire (1552) which includes a "crosse of cooper".

The special interest lies in that there is evidence that both in North and South Wales and in parts of Staffordshire, copper was mined and worked to some extent. Limited as these native sources must have been, there must have been sufficient copper available, either within the Island, or, possibly, imported, to provide work from which relevant occupational names could have emerged.

On one side of the country, in Worcester (1275) we encounter Juliana la Copper and on the other, in Suffolk, there is met John le Coppere and William le Copperer (1327). From down south in London (1212) there is both Richard Coppersmid and Robert Coppersmith And to way up North, in Westmoreland, there is Hugo Coperman (1202).

It must, of course, be a matter of individual research by persons whose surnames can be related to this source, to establish positive facts.

Finally mention might usefully be made of the influence of immigration from the Continent. Refugees at different times settled here and frequently translated their foreign names into an appropriate equivalent. Names such as Kupfer, Kupper, Cuypers, etc. can all be quoted as examples and the form "Cooper" was frequently adopted.

Even taking into account all these innumerable permutations on the name "Cooper" not only in English but in Foreign Form, no outstanding namesake emerges. The only name much encountered in English reference works is that of Albert Cuyp (1620-1691) of Dordrecht in the Netherlands. He was an artist who specialised in the representation of cattle and horses.

© Desmond Holden
From "The Peak Advertiser", 28th July 1997.

© Copyright GENUKI and Contributors 1996-2008, &c.
GENUKI is a registered trade mark of the charitable trust GENUKI, see About GENUKI as an Organisation

Are you lost in the Genuki hierarchy or arrived here from a Search Engine?
If so, use the up-arrow(s) at the top of the page to go up the hierarchy.

URL of this page: http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/DBY/NamesPersonal/Cooper2.html