diff --git a/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py b/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py
index 73da3c418dd7..aba5b61e2b28 100644
--- a/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py
+++ b/lib/matplotlib/font_manager.py
@@ -29,7 +29,6 @@
 
 from base64 import b64encode
 from collections import namedtuple
-import copy
 import dataclasses
 from functools import lru_cache
 from io import BytesIO
@@ -902,7 +901,12 @@ def set_math_fontfamily(self, fontfamily):
 
     def copy(self):
         """Return a copy of self."""
-        return copy.copy(self)
+        # Optimize: direct instance creation instead of using copy.copy(self)
+        # This avoids unnecessary lookup and internal machinery of copy module for simple objects.
+        cls = self.__class__
+        result = cls.__new__(cls)
+        result.__dict__ = self.__dict__.copy()
+        return result
 
     # Aliases
     set_name = set_family