What a lot to ponder. I'll see if they have a genforum. It would be unusual to find so many Bobos in VA and surrounding areas if they were Spanish or Italian at such an early date but one never knows. Thanks for something to go on, Barbara. Appreciate your attention and quick responses. Gary R-R-R-Radcliffe ----- Original Message ----- From: LaChance Sent: Sunday, January 19, 2003 6:19 AM To: SURNAME-ORIGINS-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SURNAME-ORIGINS] BOBO BOBO 1. Spanish: nickname for someone with a speach defect. 2. Jewish: origin unknown. (A Dictionary of Surnames by Patrick Hanks and Flavia Hodges) BOBO, BOBOWSKI (Pol.) The fat, chubby man. (New Dictionary of American Family Names by Elsdon C. Smith) BOBO (Sp.) Derived from the Latin "balbus", meaning stammering. At the time of the printing of this source (1995) there were 12,870 known instances of the name in the US. (Encyclopedia of American Family Names by H. Amanda Robb and Andrew Chesler) Didn't find it in my Italian source. No indication of the hows and whys of the immigration to America. Barbara GARY RADCLIFFE wrote: >BOBO - Should be Italian and Spanish. I'm wondering about the meaning >and how the name found its way to America and such an early date. >Perhaps the family settled in England before coming to America. > >Gary Radcliffe >West Covina, CA > > >============================== >To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: >http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237 > > > > ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237