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I'd just like to point out that Cotton Mather received Cotton as his given name because it was his mother's maiden name, so it is a surname transfer, not a direct transfer from the word. I didn't know it was used for a character in King of the Hill. I can see how the writers of that show might have thought of Cotton as a Southern name, but as a given name it would actually be very "New England" and rare in the South.

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And as a surname Cotton is not taken from the plant but is from Old English "aet cottum", meaning "dweller by the cottages." (See Reaney & Wilson's A Dictionary of English Surnames.)