This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Cowper Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/jMQ.2ACIB/18.19.1 Message Board Post: My own studies seem to indicate that there are essentially three 'types' of Cowper. There is a mainly English based group, whose name is an anglicisation of the Flemish 'Kuiper'; there is a Scottish group whose name is Cowper, an old Scottish tradename, meaning 'horse dealer' and of course, there is a group whose name is an alternative spelling of Cooper/Couper, the barrelmakers.