SY, BobY, who is Hoboken named after? I always thought it was a Leni Lenape (Amerind) name. But your citation sounds like it might also be an old German/Germanic name (if, indeed, Professor Hoboken is not some mythological entity). And let's not forget to mention when speaking of Hoboken that many credit the town as the birthplace of baseball, the first game said to have been played at the fabled Elysian Fields. Most folks now dismiss the Cooperstown/Abner Doubleday origin as a fabrication.

Thanks, all, for the great entymological look at hobo!
And when I was a young rebel I had a T-shirt made with that Steinbeck quote on it, "Once a bum always a bum." People who didn't like long-hairs would sneer at it until they saw the John Steinbeck citation and they'd do a double-take! Sometimes they'd say, "John Steinbeck said that?" And I'd say, "Yup! He sure did! Ha!" Great fun to tweak folks like that then! Never did find a way to make a living as a bum, though! But my Dad once introduced me to a funeral gathering of old relatives, when I was in my 20's, as a "retired bum!" I'm still workin' on that one!