Key grip;
"There are lands outside the USA (honest) that don't do them hourly"
That's why I said "Usually taken on the hour". It's not uncommon for the Metars not to be updated if there are no significant changes.
As for the French origin of the names I may be mistaken, If I can find any info on that I will post it. I may just be I'm thinking of other abreviations such as BR (mist) and FU (smoke) which are French contractions and assumed it applied to the Taf and Metar.