This very unusual "Huguenot" name has an early recording in London as "Koopye", but thereafter is always found as "Coopey, Coopi, or Coopee. It is in fact a late medieval Dutch or German nickname which derives from the hebrew "Yaakov", and is most commonly found as Jacob or James. There are more than three hundred versions of the name from Jacobbe, Jeacop, Jakov, Jacobi, Kubacki, Giacobbo, to Kop, Koop, and Koope the latter being the origin of the "modern" Anglicized variant, from the Elizabethan period. The name recording examples include Anthoine Coopee who was a witness at the Threadneedle Street French Huguenot church on September 2nd 1655 in the "reign" of Oliver Cromwell, whilst on February 22nd 1679, one Adrian Coopey married Marie Abetts at the church of St. James', Dukes Place, London in the reign of Charles 11 (1660 - 1685). The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of John Koopye, which was dated June 5th 1580, christened at St. Martins in the Field, Westminster, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1, "Good Queen Bess", 1558 - 1603. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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