What are your neighbours like?

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Knight of Gondor

Mine are like the Drúedain. Reclusive and unfriendly.

Notably, Tolkien may have based some ideas of hobbits on the citizens of Kentucky:

Tolkien's Ol' Kentucky Hole?

Hobbits in Kentucky

I went to internet phone books and found no entries for Baggins, Tooks or Bracegirdles, no Brandybucks (there's a Meriadoc Brandybuck living in Florida, though!), but several Burrows and Grubbs and a few Proudfoots.

I went to a lecture on this topic at Birmingham 2005. The guy who gave it (can't remember his name but he was truly impressive, a huge American bloke with a beard and big belly and who played a They Might Be Giants song on his keyboard - totally eccentric) reckoned there wasn't anything in the idea in particular as a lot of the names crop up elsewhere in similar numbers too.

I went to school with some Bilbos and I work with a Proudfoot. Took is a fairly common name in the UK too.