Knoop is a Dutch and Low German surname. Meaning "knot" and "button", it may have a metonymic origin referring to button maker. Notable people with the surname include:Abe Knoop, Dutch football goalkeeper and goalkeeping coach Anneliese Knoop-Graf (1921–2009), German non-fiction writer Bobby Knoop, American baseball player Edgar Knoop, German contemporary painter and sculptor Etienne Knoops, Belgian politician and Government Minister Franz Knoop (1875–1946), German biochemist Frederick Knoop (1878–1943), American metallurgist Knoop hardness test, a microhardness test for very brittle materials developed by him Gerhard Knoop (1920–2009), Norwegian actor, stage producer and theatre director Gerhard Ouckama Knoop (1861–1913), German novelist Hans Knoop, Dutch journalist Johann Knoop (1846–1882), Russian collector of musical instruments, son of Ludwig Johann Hermann Knoop (1706–1769), German-born Dutch gardener and pomologist Johannes Knoops, American architect Ludwig Knoop (1821–1894), German cotton merchant and businessman Otto Knoop (1853–1931), German folklorist and collector of fairy tales Rick Knoop, American race car driver Savannah Knoop, half-sister of the partner of American writer Laura Albert Willem Jan Knoop (1811–1894), Dutch lieutenant-general, military historian, and politician