# Cooper (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/cooper/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

An English surname originating as an occupation of cooper.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | not recorded |
| Type | occupational, named after the work an ancestor did |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 280,791 |
| US rank (2010) | 70 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 1,100 people |
| Change since 2000 | +4.0% (270,097 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈkupɚ/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Who carries it

Share of people named Cooper in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 68% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 26% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 2.4% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.5% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.7% |
| Two or more races | 2.3% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Cooper in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Canada and South Africa.

## People named Cooper

- Bradley Cooper, American actor and filmmaker (born 1975)
- Gary Cooper, American actor (1901–1961)
- James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (1789–1851)
- Alice Cooper, American singer (born 1948)
- Leon Cooper, American physicist (1930–2024)
- Chris Cooper, American actor (1951-)
- Martin Cooper, American engineer, father of mobile phone
- Dominic Cooper, British actor
- Gordon Cooper, American astronaut (1927–2004)
- Anderson Cooper, American journalist (born 1967)
- Jackie Cooper, American actor, director (1922-2011)
- Merian C. Cooper, American aviator, actor, director and producer (1893-1973)

and 97 more on Wikidata.

## Similar surnames

Copper, Cofer, Cover, Coover, Coffer, Copher, Chavarria, Chavira, Chaparro, Caffrey, Chopra, Capra.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.