Where did that name come from? Could Mike Huckabee be descended from farming Vikings?

Have you ever wondered the historical meaning to your last name? What does it mean? Where did it come from? Have you ever wondered about someone else' name? Maybe it was your friend or an acquaintance? What about a political candidate?

After the Michigan Debate a journalist, someone who should have known better, was making a comment about Mike Huckabee's last name, calling it a hick name. I went on ancestry.com to see what Mike Huckabee's last name means. I thought I would check other candidate's, Rep and Dem, last names. There is no info for Rodham, Kucinich or Obama.

This is really fun researching ancestry. I had been doing research of my own family, but I have not been able to get too far. Some I can trace back to the Revolutionary war and some of my Southern side to Medieval/Renaissance Europe

Here is what I found for Huckabee

Huckabee
Variant of English Huckaby. I decided to see what Huckaby means.

Huckaby
English (rare in England): apparently a habitational name from Huccaby in Devon, possibly so named from Old English woh ‘crooked’ + byge ‘river bend’, or Uckerby in North Yorkshire, named with an unattested Old Norse personal name, Úkyrri or Útkári, + býr ‘farmstead’. Old Norse is Viking.

Here is what I found for occupation, in 1880. Check the graph to the right. the majority of Huckabee's were farmers. All of them had blue collar jobs. While none of them had fancy titles, it shows that they were hard workers. Mike Huckabee is a hard worker and he will work hard for the American people. He and his family before him knows about the struggles of the American family.

I tried to post a map that shows name distributions in 1840, 1880 and 1920, but for some reason the only part of the map that would show up is Tennessee. So I will describe what I found.

In 1840 about three Huckabee families each lived in Mississippi and North Carolina. Two Huckabee families lived in Tennessee. One Huckabee family each lived in Alabama and South Carolina. To see the map go here.

In 1880 about 97-192 Huckabee families lived in Alabama. Thirty-three to Ninety-six Huckabee families each lived in Arkansas and South Carolina. One to Thirty-two Huckabee families each lived in Texas, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia and North Carolina. To see the map go here.

In 1920 about 39-75 Huckabee families lived in Texas. Fourteen to thirty-six Huckabee families each lived in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina. One to thirteen Huckabee families each lived in California, Idaho, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana, Mississipi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland,Virginia, North Carolina.

To see this map go here.

Here is my conclusion about these maps. Since many of y'all are figuring how does all this have to do with politics? If ya look at the first map ya notice that there was only two states, not too many Huckabee's being too known. Then ya see in 1840 there is more Huckabee's being known, in the South. Then in 1920 there were Huckabee's all over the place.

This is how Mike Huckabee's campaign has been. First he was only known in his home state of Arkansas and a few other places. Then he became more known in most of the other Southern states and maybe a few other Northern states. Now he is getting lotsa buzz and becoming a household name everywhere in this country. And this time it took about 80 days, instead of 80 years.

I also found predictable info on Huckabee Civil War Service. I was hoping it would be different, but ya can't base a candidate on what side his ancestors fought in a war. Perhaps the two men who fought on the Union side were his direct ancestors and the other guys were his gg uncles.

I am sure many of y'all are thinking, "well this map instance can happen with any family the more generations that grow." This is not always the case with every family.

Check out all these links and just play around a little. Not just with the Huckabee name, but your own too. It really is fun.

Next installment I will show y'all about the Romney name. Unfortunately I no longer have a payed subscription to Ancestry so I can not give more details. This is only the free stuff available.

Actually, if I still had the payed subscription I would worry about my families of Kallis(Bohemia, Illinois), Eaker(Switzerland, Germany, most of the South, Arkansas), Reimel(Germany, Pennsylvania, Michigan), Harding(England, New York, Michigan), Wells(England, Illinois, Arkansas, Michigan), Shoemaker(Pennsylvania), Love(UK, not sure, Michigan), Loll(Germany), Hall(Germany), Walter(Germany), Pawlowski(Poland, Germany), Nielsen(Denmark), Selinger/Seliger(Bohemia), Ryan(Ireland)

God Bless from the Upper Peninsula in Michigan and hug your family!