Kooper
A Dutch given name meaning "maker of barrels or casks".
Name Census estimates that about 4,110 living Americans carry the first name Kooper. It is a predominantly male name (91.5% of registrations). The average person named Kooper today is around 12 years old, and the year with the single highest number of Kooper births was 2022 (257 babies).
This page is the full Name Census profile for Kooper. Below you will find a gender breakdown showing how the name splits between male and female registrations, a year-by-year popularity chart stretching back to 1880, decade-level totals, the top US states for this name, its meaning and etymology, and a set of frequently asked questions with data-backed answers.
For a British comparison, Name Census UK has a UK baby-name profile for Kooper with official rankings and popularity over time.
Key insights
- • Kooper is a relatively new arrival in the SSA data. The average bearer is just 12 years old, meaning it gained most of its traction in the last two decades.
People living today
4.1K
~ 1 in 83,395 Americans
Peak year
2022
257 babies that year
Average age
12
years old
2024 SSA rank
#1,082
Tracked since 1990
Census
Kooper in the 2020 Census
The 2020 Census recorded 2,741 people with the first name Kooper, which placed it at #5,998 in the published first-name tables. This is a snapshot of people who already had the name at the time of the Census.
The SSA sections elsewhere on this page answer a different question: how often parents gave the name to babies over time. The "people living today" figure on this page is different again: it is a current estimate built from SSA birth records and age-based survival rates, so the two numbers are not expected to match exactly.
2020 Census rank
#5,998
National first-name rank
People counted
2.7K
2,741 in the published race/origin table
Per 100,000
0.9
People with this name in 2020
Largest reported group
White
85.9% of people with this name
Demographics
Ancestry and ethnicity for Kooper
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kooper is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself.
The bar chart below shows how people with the first name Kooper described their own race and ethnicity on the 2020 Census form. The Census Bureau groups responses into six broad categories: White, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Asian and Pacific Islander, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Two or More Races. When a category has too few respondents for a given name, the Bureau suppresses the figure to protect individual privacy, which is why some names show fewer than six slices.
Percentages are shown so the breakdown is easy to read across every published category. Because the 2020 Census first-name file also includes raw headcounts for each group, Name Census can show those alongside the percentages in the legend and hover tooltip.
Keep in mind that these are self-reported numbers. A first name does not determine a person's race or ethnicity, and the distribution you see here reflects the specific population who happened to carry the name Kooper at the time of the 2020 Census, not any inherent property of the name itself.
- White85.9% · 2,355
- Two or more races5.6% · 153
- Hispanic or Latino4.0% · 109
- Black or African American2.6% · 71
- American Indian and Alaska Native1.4% · 38
- Asian and Pacific Islander0.5% · 15
Gender
Gender distribution for Kooper
Kooper leans heavily male at 91.5% of total registrations, but 352 girls have also been registered with the name over the years, giving it a small but present crossover presence.
Kooper as a male name
- Ranked #1,082 in 2024
- 201 male births in 2024
- Peak: 2022 (230 births)
Kooper as a female name
- Ranked #7,406 in 2024
- 15 female births in 2024
- Peak: 2014 (28 births)
2020 Census snapshot
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kooper leans strongly male. 2,508 people counted with this name were male (91.6%), compared with 231 female bearers (8.4%).
Popularity
Kooper: popularity over time
The SSA tracks Kooper from the 1990s through to the 2020s, spanning 4 decades of birth certificate data. The biggest single decade for the name was the 2010s, with 2,021 total registrations. Although the numbers have come down from the 2010s peak, Kooper remains solidly in use and shows no sign of disappearing from maternity wards.
Babies born per year
Decades
Kooper by decade
The table below breaks the full SSA timeline into ten-year windows. Each row shows how many male and female babies were given the name Kooper during that decade, along with a combined total. This is useful for spotting eras where the name surged or retreated.
Geography
Where Koopers live
The SSA's state-level files cover 32 states and territories. Texas, Oklahoma, Ohio recorded the most babies named Kooper, while Oregon, South Dakota, Montana recorded the fewest. The average across all reporting states is about 73 registrations each.
Origin
Meaning and history of Kooper
The name Kooper is believed to have its origins in the Dutch language, stemming from the occupation of a cooper, which is a person who makes and repairs wooden casks, barrels, and tubs. The name can be traced back to the Middle Ages, when the craft of cooperage was an essential trade in many European towns and villages.
One of the earliest recorded instances of the name Kooper dates back to the 15th century, when a cooper named Jan Kooper was mentioned in archival records from the city of Utrecht in the Netherlands. This suggests that the name was already in use as both a surname and a given name during that time period.
In the following centuries, the name Kooper continued to be used throughout the Netherlands and other Dutch-speaking regions. It was sometimes spelled as Koper or Kuper, but the meaning remained the same, referring to the occupation of a cooper.
One notable figure in history who bore the name Kooper was Pieter Kooper, a Dutch painter who lived in the 17th century. He was known for his still-life paintings and landscapes, and his works can be found in various museums across Europe.
Another historical figure with the name Kooper was Johann Kooper, a German composer and organist who lived in the 18th century. He composed several works for the organ and was highly regarded in his time.
In the 19th century, a Dutch explorer named Jacobus Kooper embarked on several expeditions to the East Indies, now known as Indonesia. His journals and accounts of his travels provide valuable insights into the region's geography and culture during that period.
Moving into the 20th century, Hendrik Kooper was a Dutch politician who served as a member of the Dutch parliament from 1925 to 1946. He was a prominent figure in the Dutch Labor Party and played a role in shaping the country's policies during the interwar years and the early post-war period.
While the name Kooper has its roots in the Dutch language and culture, it has also been adopted and used in other parts of the world, particularly in areas with Dutch influence or settlement. However, its origins and historical significance remain closely tied to the Netherlands and the craft of cooperage.
People
Kooper + last name combinations
How many people share a full name with Kooper as the first name? Click a combination below to see the estimate, or search any pairing.
Related
Other names starting with K
Other first names starting with K with a similar number of bearers.
FAQ
Kooper: questions and answers
How many people in the U.S. are named Kooper?
Name Census puts the figure at roughly 4,110 living Americans. We arrive at this by taking every SSA birth registration for Kooper going back to 1880 and adjusting each cohort for expected survival using CDC actuarial life tables. The result is an age-weighted living-bearer count, not a raw birth total. That works out to about 1 in 83,395 US residents.
Is Kooper a common name?
We classify Kooper as "Rare". It ranks above 96.1% of all first names in the SSA dataset by living bearers. Across the full history of the data, 4,145 babies have been registered with this name.
When was Kooper most popular?
The single biggest year for Kooper was 2022, when 257 babies received the name. The fact that the average living Kooper is about 12 years old gives you a rough sense of which era contributed the most bearers who are still alive today.
How common was Kooper in the 2020 Census?
The published 2020 Census first-name tables recorded 2,741 people with the name Kooper, or 0.91 per 100,000 residents. That placed it at #5,998 in the national Census ranking for first names.
Why is the Census count different from the living estimate?
Because they measure different things. The Census figure is a count of people who had the name Kooper in 2020. The living estimate aims to answer a current question instead: how many people with the name are alive today, based on SSA birth records and age-based survival rates. Since one number is a 2020 snapshot and the other is a present-day estimate, they are not expected to be identical.
What does the Census say about the gender split for Kooper?
In the 2020 Census sex table, Kooper leans strongly male. 2,508 people counted with this name were male (91.6%), compared with 231 female bearers (8.4%). The Census view is a snapshot of people living with the name in 2020, while the SSA section above tracks births across time.
What does the Census say about the background of people named Kooper?
In the 2020 Census race and Hispanic-origin table, the largest reported group for people named Kooper is White at 85.9%. The next largest groups are Two or More Races (5.6%) and Hispanic (4.0%). These figures describe the people who had the name in 2020, not any inherent property of the name itself. The percentages in the chart above come from self-reported race and Hispanic-origin responses in the 2020 Census.
Which group reports the name Kooper most often in the Census?
White is the largest reported group for people named Kooper in the 2020 Census, accounting for 85.9% (2,355 people in the published table).
Why can the Census sex total and race total differ slightly?
The Census Bureau published separate 2020 tables for sex and for race/Hispanic origin, and the released figures can differ slightly because of privacy protection in the public files. That is why this page treats the gender section and the race/origin section as two related snapshots instead of forcing them into one identical total.
Does every first name have Census demographic data?
No. The public Census first-name release only includes names that met the Bureau's publication rules, so many rarer names in the SSA files have no Census demographic snapshot. When that happens, the SSA trend, gender history, and state sections still appear, but the 2020 Census demographic sections are omitted.
What does the SSA popularity chart show?
The chart tracks births, not the number of people alive with the name today. Each point shows how many babies were given the name Kooper in that year. That makes it useful for spotting when the name rose, peaked, or faded.
Is Kooper a male name?
Yes, 91.5% of people registered as Kooper in the SSA data are male. You can see the full per-sex comparison in the gender distribution section above, which includes the latest year rank, birth count, and peak year for each sex.
Is Kooper still being used today?
Yes. The SSA still recorded Kooper in 2024, and the page above shows its latest-year rank where available. A name can be well past its peak and still remain in steady use, especially if it built up a large population over earlier decades.
Why can a name have a lot of living bearers even if it is not trendy now?
Because living-bearer counts and current baby-name popularity measure different things. A name like Kooper can build up a very large population over many decades, even if fewer parents are choosing it now than they did at its peak.
Where does this data come from?
First-name figures come from the Social Security Administration's national baby name files, which cover every name on a birth certificate from 1880 to 2024. Living-bearer estimates layer in CDC actuarial life tables broken out by sex to account for mortality. The population baseline (342,754,338) is the Census Bureau's latest national estimate. You can read the full calculation on our methodology page.
How many people have Kooper as a first name?
HowManyOfMe.org, our sister site, answers that with the living-bearer count in one glance.