"Goober" meaning peanut is probably derived from the plant's name in some African language, "nguba." (Various sources are saying the source language is Kikongo, Kimbundu, or something else in the Bantu group to which both of the former belong; Gritchka says the word is likely the same or similar in both of those two.) The word was brought over by the people brought as slaves and became common in the South.