Hoopes
A surname probably related to the word for a hoop or ring, or to the surname Hopes as a regional spelling.
The #9,421 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 89,440 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The excerpt connects Hoopes with Hopes and ultimately with the old word for a hoop or circle. On that reading, the name may have begun as a descriptive or nickname-style surname referring to a hoop-maker, something hoop-shaped, or a person associated with a hoop. Another possibility is that Hoopes is simply a spelling variant of Hopes, a long-established English surname with multiple possible explanations.
History
Hoopes appears in English-language surname records as a variant spelling rather than a very common independent form. In the United States, the spelling with double o is well established, but it likely developed from earlier English Hopes/Hoopes forms rather than from a separate origin. Because the historical excerpt is brief and partly etymological, the precise line of descent is not fully certain.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The same old root behind this name could be linked to the everyday word hoop, showing how ordinary objects often became surnames.
From the historical record
“end ; iht, an adjective termination. Hooked. Hoopes. Hopes, genitive of Jibp, a hoop, circle, company. Belonging to a hoop. Hough. Hoh, or ho, a heel, hough, ham. I.”
— Family Names from the Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman and Scotch