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I promised.. I searched for any other threads in the last year.

Where / how / when did Jimmy get this nickname?

My understanding is that it's a childhood nickname. Southern boys tend to pick those up with no real reason. My Stepfather is still called "Butch" by his mother, despite the fact that he has two graduate degrees, and has been both a respected lawyer, and successful businessman.

The first thing I remember is the reference from Gypsies in the Palace - we'll party just like Bubba does, we'll do the old man proud. Not sure of the history before that.

I heard somewhere that it started in Key West back when Jimmy arrived there and people there were calling each other Bubba.

Four Play wrote:The first thing I remember is the reference from Gypsies in the Palace - we'll party just like Bubba does, we'll do the old man proud. Not sure of the history before that.

Also in the song "I Used To Have Money One Time" near the end it alternates between Jimmy and Bubba had money one time.

Also a reference to Bubba in the song "Fool Button"

Still no closer to your answer Penny

Maybe it's just a Southern thang since Bubba is also slang for "good ol' boy". "Bubba" and "Buffett" sounding so similar also seems to play right into it rather than being some kind of official nickname. That's my theory anyhow. I also first picked up on the whole Bubba thing circa Son of a Son of a Sailor and have noticed it on the other songs mentioned as well.

Well, "Bubba" is what Southern siblings call their brothers,
and JWB does have a couple of those... Siblings, that is...
But not brothers. Anyway, couldn't Lucy and Laurie have started it?

I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

That's what I always thought of the name "Bubba" until I heard it applied to Jimmy, and discovered (probably here on BN) that it was what the oldest son in a Southern family is called.

The following is from Lulu Buffett's recent letter on her site:

"LuLu’s is all about family and in its own way is a family business. It just so happens that the family member who is my partner is known in one out of every eight households in America. To you, he’s Jimmy Buffett. To me and my sister, Laurie, he’s simply Bubba."

OK, then.

I just spent the past hour trying to find something definitive re what the h*** exactly does Bubba mean. More fool me. Everybody out there has his or her own opinion. But the concensus seems to be that it sprang from "brother" and has since come to mean any male Southerner (sometimes white, sometimes black). It also seems to be used affectionately by Southerners, and perjoratively by others.

This is one such definition:

"Bubba (Southern US) Officially means "Brother" as in a male sibling, but is often extended to mean the oldest son of a family; such a kid is then stuck with the nickname of "Bubba" until they move out of the area. "

I'm almost certain that's what his sisters called (and still do) him as children.

I went to school with many kids who came from the south and Bubba
is for one brother and in some cases Bud if there is another
brother, In Kansas and the heartland Bud is the first choice
My grandmother instilled this into my older sisters and to them
I am either Wayne or Bud and it's been done so long no one even thinks
about it.
Also in the other foot in the south the sisters are Sissy, I think I like
Bubba better

According to Magic Frank on the Trails of Margaritaville tour, there was a "bubba system" in Key West when Jimmy was there. Sort of a corrupt political system where politicians and other government employees would take care of their friend's first.

I doubt Jimmy was on the "in" with the bubba system, but maybe it come from that?

I just read Tom Corcoran's first novel "The Mango Opera" not long ago which is set in Key West adn has many Buffett references. The main character Alex Rutledge is called bubba by another character alot and it gets explained that when the people of Key West accepted you as one of their own you knew because they would call you bubba. Possibly this is how he got the name??

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

12vmanRick wrote:

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

you got that right Bubba!!!

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

you got that right Bubba!!!

LOL.. thanks MAN ! heeheee

12vmanRick wrote:

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

you got that right Bubba!!!

LOL.. thanks MAN ! heeheee

**checking pants** nope didn't grow one......

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

you got that right Bubba!!!

LOL.. thanks MAN ! heeheee

**checking pants** nope didn't grow one......

envey huh ?

12vmanRick wrote:

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

ph4ever wrote:

12vmanRick wrote:

daddymention wrote:I really can't stand when people are called "Bubba"....To me it is really lame...You hear it so much in country music. It seems that if you're called "Bubba", you are some kind of uneducated hick from the South...at least that seems to be the stereotype...I'm sure it's not a bad thing in the South....I just don't understand the need for it and it doesn't seem to fit Buffett's image...

Trust me most people think that we are hicks no matter what our names/nicknames are!

you got that right Bubba!!!

LOL.. thanks MAN ! heeheee

**checking pants** nope didn't grow one......

envey huh ?

no thankful I don't have one.........