You're correct- pardon my misinformation lol! He was born in Sudan, exported to Jardin des Plantes in Paris, moved to the London Zoo on 1865, then sold to P.T. Barnum in 1882 (despite public protest). He spent the majority of his life in the zoo, actually... that's on me.
That said I'm not sure which was necessarily more instrumental in his name becoming a word. I'm in the US so I'm not sure how commonplace the word jumbo is over in Europe lol. I have my suspicions that Dumbo contributed to its popularity as a term a little bit, too.
