Cooper

A village green in Elizabethan England, a man in a leather apron shaping oak staves into a watertight barrel — the cooper was one of the essential tradesmen of any pre-industrial economy, and the surname spread wherever English speakers settled. James Fenimore Cooper gave it an American literary pedigree; Gary Cooper gave it a movie-star drawl. American parents brought it to first-name life in the late twentieth century, and it now sits at rank 50. Two friendly syllables with a double-O at the opening that rounds the mouth into something like a smile. Unisex in current use, unpretentious, and solidly handcrafted in feel.