What is the origin of the name Cooper?

Question:

What is the origin of the name Cooper?

Is Cooper a name that many immigrants changed their surnames to when coming to North America?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: As you've heard above, a cooper was a barrel maker. It was an English name, but there was an equivalent name in many other languages. It was very common for a European immigrant to Anglicize their name. That's how many Kowalskis became "Smiths" or the Koch descendents became "Cooke". You'll usually find this change happening in the first 5 years of arrival if they came before 1893. After that, they usually waited until they were naturalized (at the 5 year mark) to make the change all in one fell swoop (which was allowed back then). The Anglicizing of names was no myth. I'm guessing that anyone who thinks it is hasn't done much research with Central and Eastern European immigrants whose names were much too long and complicated for Americans to spell or pronounce correctly in the original spelling.