# Relationship between "Hoboken" and "Hobo"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 2, 2001, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177 "2001-11-02T19:08:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cravasse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@Cravasse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cravasse)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/21 "2011-05-09T17:23:12Z")
This is a interesting discussion to say the least. I really don’t know where the word originated, and from reading this thread, it appears that no one really does. However, there are a lot of very interesting theories, which evokes my curiosity. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/22 "2011-05-09T18:07:45Z")
The Name “Hoboken” isn’t a Dutch place name shifted to the New World. To cite the Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > The name “Hoboken”, pronounced by some as HO-bo-ken /ˈhoʊboʊkən/, was decided upon by Colonel John Stevens when he purchased land, on a part of which the city still sits. The Lenape (later called Delaware Indian) referred to the area as the “land of the tobacco pipe”, most likely to refer to the soapstone collected there to carve tobacco pipes, and used a phrase that became “Hopoghan Hackingh”.[8] Like Weehawken, its neighbor to the north, Communipaw and Harsimus to the south, Hoboken had many variations in the folks-tongue. Hoebuck, old Dutch for high bluff and likely referring to Castle Point, was used during the colonial era and later spelled as Hobuck,[9] Hobock,[10] and Hoboocken.[11] So it appears that “Hoboken” is from a Dutch word that was inspired by the Lenape place name for the then-island. That’s not surprising – there are other examples of mixed Indian/European place names. in NJ. _Perth Amboy_ gets its “Perth” part from Scotland (lots of Scottish Quakers settled in central NJ), but " ambo" is Lenape “Ambo” = “point”, so “Perth Amboy” is a dual-language “Perth Point”. _South Amboy_ across the bay is thus “South Point”. ---
**Author:** ![philippe\_gh74](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/db5fbb/32.png) [@philippe\_gh74](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/philippe_gh74)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/23 "2011-11-02T10:10:04Z")
Despite the wikipedia definition (see above). It’s strange that in Belgium nearest the Netherland border, there is a city named Hoboken since 1123 AD. See wikilink : [Hoboken, Antwerp - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoboken,_Antwerp). :):):)it’s an idea worth pursuing.:dubious::dubious::dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/24 "2011-11-02T13:00:01Z")
> [@capybara](#): > > Uh, I am under the impression that the New Jersey town is named after a town in the Netherlands, as are other places in the area like Nieuw Amsterdam (New York), Haarlem, Schenectady, Breucklen (Brooklyn), Bronx, and Beverswyck (now Albany). The Bronx is named after a Swedish zombie called Jonas Bronck. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/25 "2011-11-02T13:19:50Z")
Do hobo zombies shamble after you calling out “Traaaiiiiiins”?? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/26 "2011-11-02T19:15:23Z")
Double zombie! Oh my God! ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/27 "2011-11-02T22:54:15Z")
> [@Rodney\_of\_Texas](#): > > I can’t find a link, but Garrison Keillor once explained that the gardening hoe was invented near the end of the civil war, and that destitute confederate veterans who could obtain one turned to wandering the countryside carrying their few belongings in a pack attached to the hoe. The cartoon image of a hobo with his pack on a ‘stick’ developed from this. This, certainly, is incorrect. The image is several centuries old, and comes from the tarot card [The Fool](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool_%28Tarot_card%29). I’ve read that the earliest surviving images actually show a jester with an inflated bladder on the end of his stick. This gradually changed to a beggar with a bag, as artists copied earlier images incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177/28 "2011-11-03T02:49:10Z")
> [@arara123](#): > > I saw Patti Smith in concert at a street fair/summer festival in Hoboken a couple of years ago. > > FWIW, she mentioned the Hoboken/hobo tie-in. Now that’s a cite.😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/relationship-between-hoboken-and-hobo/91177.md?page=1)