Hillbilly Names: Rubes, hayseeds and bumpkins

I like:
ABNER
JASPER
JETHRO
LUKE
REUBEN
RUFUS
SILAS

I love this list! Floyd, Ike and Jethro are personal favorites.

Bo a Hillbilly name? I have always thought of it as a Scandinvian name.

I know a Gus. I have a soft spot for Jasper, Jethro, and Roscoe. I also like Luke and Silas, but I’m uncertain if they should be on this list!

Beau is a hillbilly name. I know one of those! I like Silas and Jasper a lot, I don’t really consider hillbilly.

Names I would also suggest to add to this list that come from my east coast rural upbringing: Petey, Clinton, Dwayne!

Only 23 Americans actually named their baby Rufus in 2009, exactly the same number who selected Wilbur and well short of the number of Clydes and Floyds born.

I think Nameberry search stats have given many people the idea that Rufus is being seriously considered by elite namers for their babies, when it’s just as likely that puppy namers are driving the stats.

Well My son is a Gus and we love it although it is short for August, so that dispels the hayseed stereotype. I want to use Ike for another son, but am unable to find a long name to even it out like Gus.

I love
Chester
Floyd
Roscoe
Rufus
They are so wonderful.

Some you left off – Dwight (presidential, but hillbilly to be sure) Ray, Avery, Shelby (both for boys only), Dewayne, Elmer, Sterling, Moe, Roy, Asa, Calvin (Cal is always a good HB name) and the ever popular Robert Lee. It’s two names breaking the rule of listing doubles, which could go on forever, but you just can’t ignore a good HB name like good ‘ol Robert E. Lee.

Beth, I know a little Isaac who is nicknamed Ike. Luke doesn’t strike me as hillbilly, in spite of Luke Duke from the Dukes of Hazard. If anything, I think of Luke Skywalker.

There is anything wrong with the name Luke, but let it be noted that Luke Skywalker was a hayseed as well.

I’ve noticed that usually when we talk about “rural” names we mean a combination of Southern rural and TV Westerns. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. (BTW one of my favorite users of great Southern rural names is Charlaine Harris, not that you asked)

My husband grew up country, grandson to dairy farmers from Star Valley, Wyoming. He goes by his middle name because his first name is Udell.

Most people meet “Udell” with incredulity, EXCEPT for people from places like Star Valley, Wyoming–where settlers were overwhelmingly of English descent. Udell’s actually not that rare in Afton, WY, I am told.

So: I love these hillbilly names, but I’ve noticed in practice hillbilly names often include really clunky Anglo-Saxon names, and names that the we city folk might think a little sissy: names like Randy and Marion and Len and Lonny and Dell. These are, like, GIRL names, right?

But I dare you to tell them that to their face, because the guys I know with these “girly” names are the toughest people I know. One’s an MMA fighter and another wrestles his misbehaving horses to the ground, just to show them who’s boss.

I LOVE Jethro. I would add Absalom to the list, but only because I like it so much and am shameless.

(pardon my huge post)

Wait! No SETH? You’ve got Reuben. “Seth and Reuben also”–anybody else read or seen Cold Comfort Farm? “I saw something nasty in the woodshed”?

I like:
Luke
Gus
Jasper
Rufus
Cal
Zeke

My mother reacted in horror when someone she knew named her son Silas. Seems that she has hated the name since she was forced to read “Silas Marner” or, as the students called it, “Silly Ass Marner.” My grandpa was named Elmer, another good rural name. It was highly popular in the Midwest in the 1920s. I’ve known quite a few of them.

How very interesting! It really does all bubble down to cultural conditioning. I’m from the south of England, and growing up, a lot of my friends had names from the list. Their parents weren’t bumpkins, but dope-smoking middle-class hippies!! In my mind, hillbilly names are Luanne, Billy-Ray, Kelly and Britney, etc etc, but then again, I have never visited the mid-west…
Also, now that I live in Portugal, names considered quite posh in English-speaking countries, like Amelia, Vanessa, Genoveva and Joaquim, are considered a bit bumpkin-ny around these parts. All a question of cultural upbringing I guess.

Can NCIS save Jethro? Because I will admit to loving the name, country bumpkin or not.

It’s funny to me: this list of names–very well compiled I think–has a lot of overlap with the types of names Hipsters/Yupsters favor for their offspring. Obviously choosing a name so apparently so bumpkin-ish ostensibly shows just how much you “don’t” care about looking cool.
That said, I do quite like Lem, Zeke, Clem and Clyde.

I love Lil Abner, the movie. I would love to use Abner, Chester, Gus and JAsper

Of your list I like
Jasper, Jeb, Luke, Roscoe, Rufus, Zeb, Zed, Zeke and I kinda like Gus and Bo/Beau

I agree that Dwayne should have made the list and I really don’t think of Luke as a hillbilly name. Great post!

I am analyzing early sound recordings (1890s- 1920s) that deal with ethnicity and race. Certain recordings incorporate “rube” names , some of which have been mentioned in your discussion. Can anyone suggest academic reading on the subject? I want to focus on the years the recordings were made. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Eric Byron