Its American name derives from the Dutch word koekje or more precisely its informal, dialect variant koekie which means little cake, and arrived in American English with the Dutch settlement of New Netherland, in the early 1600s.

According to the Scottish National Dictionary, its Scottish name derives from the diminutive form  of the word cook, giving the Middle Scots cookie, cooky or cu(c)kie. It also gives an alternative etymology: like the American word, from the Dutch koekje, the diminutive of koek, a cake. There was much trade and cultural contact across the North Sea between the Low Countries and Scotland during the Middle Ages, which can also be seen in the history of curling and, perhaps, golf.

Etymology