Don't want to pollute the 'Cat with yet another thread, so creeping on this one:
People often ask, well sometimes ask, well someone once asked me, well I thought you'd like to know any way....
Whence "skiffle" ?
I doubt there's a definitive answer but here is one from the booklet to a Sunshine Skiffle Band cd.
A Nashville street musician was asked whether it was jug band music his group were playing, he said it was "skuffle" music. When asked why he said: "'Cause we're out there skifflin' for dimes". When asked: "Is that the same as "skiffle" he replied: "That's what they call it in Alabama".
Probably as valid as any other theory and less a leap of imagination than some of the reconstructions in "Walking with dinosaurs/beasts".
RtS ('50s dinosaur)