Mr. Morton! Nice to see you're still vigilantly researching our roots, I've been doing what I can, but thus far I've found too much across the board to really nail down a home area for the surname 'Kouf'. I've read in several locations it's from high German kauf, for trading, French Kouf, in regards to the Herbraic alephbeth, Arabic for liar, Greek for hollow, and an Irish referance on Magoo.com:
Mac does not always become mag when used before vowels and aspirates. The name MacKeogh, according to MacLysaght, stems from Mac Eochaidh, just as does McGeogh, McGeough and McGough. Here are excerpts from pages 199 and 200 of Irish Families: Their Names, Arms and Origins (3d edition 1972):
"MacKeough, Kehoe ; O'Hoey, Hoy.
"Keogh, including Kehoe and Mac Keogh, almost equally common forms of the same Irish surname—Mac Eochaidh—just misses a place in the hundred most numerous names in Ireland. It is chiefly found in the province of Leinster, the spelling Kehoe being usual in Co. Wexford. Outside Leinster MacKeoghs are mainly located in the neighbourhood of Limerick : the place name Ballymackeogh is in Co. Tipperary, a few miles from that city. This was the homeland of one of the three distinct septs of MacKeogh. The second was in the Ui Maine group. Their eponymous ancestor was Eochaidh O'Kelly ; they were lords of Magh Finn and their territory of Moyfinn in the barony of Athlone, Co. Roscommon, long known as Keogh's Country, was popularly so-called even in recent times. The place Keoghville in the parish of Taghmaconnell took its name from them. The third and historically the most important sept were the MacKeoghs of Leinster. These are of the same stock as the O'Byrnes and were hereditary bards to that great family. With them they migrated in early medieval times from north Kildare to Co. Wicklow whence they spread later to Co. Wexford. . . .
"The cognate patronymic O hEochaidh is anglicized as O'Hoey and Hoy. The sept so named, which was the same stock as the MacDonlevys, was of such importance in early time that its chiefs were Kings of Ulster until the end of the twelfth century when their kinsman the MacDonlevy's superseded them in that dignity. . . ."
Frankly, I'm happy just knowing the name's still alive and kicking. I've pretty much given up on where it could be from, because to really know for sure, one would have to ask John Jacob Kouf, and frankly, he left no clue as to where he and his brother were from. I do know that his brother settled in PA around the same time he was recorded as living in SD. Due to the wide range of possible root origins for the name, from the Arab areas, to the Medditerranean region, Bavarian, French, and all the way up to the Celt/Gael region, it's really impossible to tell where we are from conclusively. Like I said, I'm just happy there are other Koufs out there who are interested. I do know we're not Chinese. So I guess that's the conclusion to my investigation. We're not Chinese...we're somethin', but it isn't Chinese.
-Ian
iankouf_55@yahoo.com