Country people named Bobo

[CoolBreeze]

This Holly Bobo story has been a main news feature for the last few days, but the people in her family are typical hillbilly types. (no offense, just an observation)

I wondered how country folk could get the name "Bobo". I mean, it sounds about as country as Von Andre.

Had to see what I could find, and came up with this:

Last name origins & meanings:

Altered form of a French (Huguenot) name, probably Bobeaux, which is unexplained.
Spanish: nickname for a sufferer from a speech defect, from Spanish bobo ‘stammering’ (Latin balbus).
Hungarian (Bobó): from the old secular personal name Bobó.

The first American bearer of this name on record is Elizabeth Bobo, who in 1719 received a land grant in King and Queen Co., VA, from the Proprietors of the VA Company. Sampson Bobo, a Protestant born in France about 1735, married Sarah Simpson of Caroline Co., VA, and became the progenitor of a large and prominent southern family. Except for Revolutionary soldier Joseph Bobo of Prince William Co., VA, the entire Bobo clan seems to have moved to the counties of Spartanburg and Laurens, SC, between 1772 and 1792.


FamilyEducation: http://genealogy.familyeducation.com/su ... z1JsEFSA7h

[Tom Taggart]

The Huguenots (French Protestants/Calvinists) enjoined some protection until 1757, when politics in the French court resulted in a massacre. A year later the Edict of Nantes stabilized France, providing some protection, but over the following years there were mass migrations of the Huguenots to Prussia, the low countries, and England. In 1685, King Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes, prompting most remaining French Huguenots to flee to the Protestant countries in Europe. A large Huguenot community was established in Berlin, for example.

With the founding of New England, many Huguenots emigrated to the colonies. Particularly to Rhode Island, which was more open to minority Protestant sects than Massachusetts, or the largely Anglican Virginia colony. One of my ancestors, Gabriel Bernon, arrived in Massachusetts in the 1680's but soon settled at Newport.