A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other

countries, but usage of the term only dates from the late 18th/early 19th century. The
term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.[1]
From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays,
and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. [2] The first English
collections, Tommy Thumb's Song Bookand a sequel, Tommy Thumb's Pretty Song
Book, were published before 1744. Publisher John Newbery's stepson, Thomas
Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he
published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's Melody, or, Sonnets for the
Cradle (London, 1780).[note 1]