Shoop
A surname most likely of Germanic or Dutch origin, often representing a spelling of a word meaning “to shape” or “to make.”
The #8,010 most common surname in the United States (2010 Census) — about 1 in every 74,757 Americans shares it.
Etymology
The single excerpt provided does not give a surname entry, but it does preserve an old verb form, shoop, meaning “shaped” or “made.” That points to a likely Germanic base related to verbs for shaping, fashioning, or creating. As a surname, Shoop may also reflect a later spelling of a continental German or Dutch family name that was Anglicized on arrival in English-speaking countries.
History
Because the excerpt is incidental rather than a true headword entry, the surname’s exact origin cannot be pinned down from it alone. In the United States, Shoop is most plausibly a later spelling form of an immigrant name, especially from German or Dutch-speaking communities. The modern surname is fairly uncommon and may have multiple family lines with slightly different origins.
Origin
Regions
Variant spellings
Fun fact
The old past tense shoop appears in Middle English and means roughly “shaped” or “built,” which is why the word turns up in literary quotations about making ships or other crafted things.
From the historical record
“Ac [but] I wene it worth, of manue, As was in Noes [Noah's] tyme ; Tho [when] he shoop that shipe Of shides and of hordes, Was iievere wrighte saved that wroghte theron. — Piers Plowman, 6415-20. In youthe he [the reeve] lerned hadde”
— Surnames of the United Kingdom: a concise etymological dictionary (2 vols in 1)