COOPER
English - occupational name for a maker or repairer of wooden vessels such as
barrels, tubs, buckets, casks & vats. Its frequency bears witness to the fact
that this was one of the chief specialist trades in the Middle Ages throughout
Europe. Especially so in England where beer was drunk like water and needed to be
stored somewhere. The surname derives from the Middle English word 'couper'
- which in turn originates from the Latin 'cupa' meaning cask. Indeed, in
the Middle Ages a maker or repairer of wooden vessels was called a 'cuparius'
and this passed into English under various forms of spelling.