Eeny, meeny, miny, moe

"Eeny, meeny, miny, moe"—which can be spelled a number of ways—is a children's counting rhyme, used to select a person in games such as tag. It is one of a large group of similar rhymes in which the child who is pointed to by the chanter on the last syllable is "counted out". The rhyme has existed in various forms since well before 1820, and is common in many languages with similar-sounding nonsense syllables.

Since many similar counting rhymes existed earlier, it is difficult to ascertain this rhyme's exact origin.

A common modern version is:

There are many common variations, such as replacing tiger with "piggy", "tinker", "tigger", "chicken", "monkey", "baby", "spider", "teacher", "miner", a two-syllable name, etc.; and changing the verb in the third line to "screams", "wiggles", "squeals" or another verb. The last two lines may be changed to "if he hollers, let him pay, fifty dollars every day."

Sometimes additional lines are added at the end of the rhyme to draw out or manipulate the selection process or make it seem less predetermined, such as:

Or alternatively:

Occasionally the line copies 'Ip dip':

The first record of a similar rhyme is from about 1815, when children in New York City are said to have repeated the rhyme:

The "Hana, man" was found by Henry Carrington Bolton in the US, Ireland and Scotland in the 1880s but was unknown in England until later in the century. Bolton also found a similar rhyme in German:

Variations of this rhyme, with the nonsense/counting first line have been collected since the 1820s, such as this Scottish one:

More recognizable as a variation, which even includes the 'toe' and 'olla' from Kipling's version, is:

This was one of many variants of "counting out rhymes" collected by Bolton in 1888.

A Cornish version collected in 1882 runs:

One theory about the origins of the rhyme is that it is descended from Old English or Welsh counting, similar to the old Shepherd's count "Yan Tan Tethera" or the Cornish "Eena, mea, mona, mite".

Another possibility is that British colonials returning from the Sub-Continent introduced a doggerel version of an Indian children's rhyme used in the game of carom billiards:

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