Cowperthwaite is a locational surname of English origin, which meant a person from a village in Yorkshire, whose name derives from the Middle English coupere ("maker of wooden buckets and tubs") + thweit ("clearing"), from Old Norse thveit).
Notable people with the surname include:
Colin Cowperthwaite (born 1959), English footballer Gabriela Cowperthwaite (born 1971), American filmmaker John James Cowperthwaite (1915–2006), English civil servant, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong from 1961 to 1971 John Cowperthwaite, English kit car designer
Niall Cowperthwaite (born 1992), English footballer