Julie and Beth wrote looking for the origins of two Scandinavian rhymes that are played with little kids while touching their toes. We’re wondering if anyone’s ever heard of these rhymes and perhaps knows what country they’re from and/or anything else about their origins. Here’s what Julie wrote:
I have been searching for the origin of a nursery rhyme that my friend said to her kids. The child has his/her shoes off and starting with the little toe, she names the toes:
Little Pea (little toe)
Peter Lou (next toe)
Oosey Nossey (next toe)
Toosey tossey (next toe)
And a Great Big Oppososso (big toe)I am not sure of the spelling. However, the University of Wisconsin Children’s Library assures me that this toe rhyme has Scandinavian roots. They said: Scandinavia is known for naming toe rhymes.
Please help me, I have been searching the origin of this toe playing game for years with my friend’s blessing. My friend is Scandinavian and she doesn’t remember where she heard this toe playing game. I assume that she heard it as a child.
Julie
Beth Bookschlepper wrote in looking for the origin of a similar rhyme:
I know this as…
Little Pea,
Penny Rou,
Judy Whistle,
Mary Tossle,
And Big Tom Bumble.I am also interested in its origins.
If anyone can help, or would like to share other similar rhymes, please comment below.
Thanks!
Lisa
UPDATE: Check out Little One (aka Little Man) for an American Finger Naming Rhyme with origins in Medieval times.
This article was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 7:20 pm and is filed under Countries & Cultures, Danish, Danish Nursery Rhymes, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Icelandic, Languages, Norway, Norwegian, Norwegian Nursery Rhymes, Nursery Rhymes, Questions, Rhymes by Theme, Sweden, Swedish, Swedish Nursery Rhymes, Toe Naming Rhymes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
June 27th, 2015 at 10:51 pm
Our family (has English, Scottish, German, Sweedish and Danish great grandparents) said the rhyme:
Icky Pea
Penny Rue
Ruey Whistle
Fee Fossil
And
Old Tom Bumbo
Each toe was touched or pulled a little until the Old Tom Bumbo was said with great importance while bending the big toe three times.
I loved reading all of the various versions of this. So fun to find!
July 5th, 2015 at 9:46 pm
My Uncle Gus a famous lobster fisherman named the toes for me. Today I am sitting with my Grandson Hayden Russell and we read all of the other names, but ours still remain unique. Some are very simial but not exactly the same.
Little Pit
Pit Wisy
May Ossil
Little Dissil
Tommy Bumbo
Hayden says Hello!
July 5th, 2015 at 10:33 pm
Thanks for sharing! Hi Hayden!
July 18th, 2015 at 12:51 pm
Interesting the various versions of these sayings. My grandfather, Stephen Freeman, whose ancestors came from England, used to say the toe game this way. Inky pea
Penny rue
Maw tossle
Rue whistle
And the big Tom Bo
What memories we all have, and the guesses as how these words were spelled.
August 13th, 2015 at 4:14 pm
This is fascinating. My 87 year old aunt told me today of the rhyme her grandmother did with fingers rather than toes in England. She didn’t know how to spell all the names so I put them in to Google phonetically. It’s clear that there are huge similarities in many countries but that being an oral tradition the spelling and pronunciation is often unique not just to a country but an individual.
Anyway ours goes:
Little pig
Pillimore
Grimmythistle
Penny whistle
Big Thumb Paul, the father of them all
September 4th, 2015 at 5:26 pm
Oh, this is fascinating! I can’t believe how many variations there are! I grew up with:
Little Pea
Penny Roo
Rudy Whistle
Molly Wassle
and OLD TOM BUM-BAH-LO!
My mother learned this from her mother, who was of Irish descent.
September 14th, 2015 at 10:01 pm
From my grandmother, born 1885 in New hampshire of English background
Little Sickie Wee
Little Penny Rou
Little Rue Whistle
Little Sarah Hossle
and GREAT BIG TOM BUMBLE BEE
October 24th, 2015 at 7:39 pm
How amazing is the history of the toe rhymes.
Great that they can be discussed.
Probably never written down and changed a little from generation to generation.
My mother used it with us in Yorkshire in the 1930’s and my grand daughter is using it with her two year old who can now recite it. Starting with the little toe in a high pitched voice.
Eenie Weenie
Palley Loodie
Lady Whistle
Lodie Wassle
Great Big Odoman Dodd (in a deep bass voice)
November 2nd, 2015 at 2:08 am
Here is how I remember my grandpa doing it on my feet:
Bill Rinkum
Tom Bunken
Lon Gracious
Betsy Foster
And Little Dick.
I just googled those and came upon this sight. Amazing! Does anyone else remember those names?
November 3rd, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Glad to see a few of the final answers mention piggies! In our family “piggies” are synonymous with “toes” because the rhyme our Dad always did with us (and now does with our kids) is:
Little Piggy
Piggy Loody
Loody Whistle
Mary Jostle
Old Tom Bumper (said in a low voice, yanking on the big toe), we always thought “bumper” made a lot of sense cause it tends to be the toe you always stub.
Dad was born in California, learned it presumably from his Grandpa who was of Cornish-Irish descent, I believe.
November 19th, 2015 at 7:13 pm
My family resides in northern Michigan and has Dutch roots.
I was taught:
Little Pea
Penny Rue
Roady Whistle
Mary Hossle
and BIG GUBBER!
November 22nd, 2015 at 6:50 am
My family, (Scotch, Irish, Welch)
I was taught:
Little peep
Perry rude
Rude Whistle
Mary Horn
Great Gribble Grobble (tickling )
December 2nd, 2015 at 8:21 pm
Cindy wrote:
I think that is Swedish. My mother would do this to us kids and grand kids. I’m not sure I spell it correctly?
Tom a tut
Slick a put
Long a Tom
Lilla yon
Lilla pitta spilla mon
She described it as:
Tom Thumb
The best one. The pointer
The long one
The smaller one that didn’t do much
The little pinky.
-Cindy
December 14th, 2015 at 3:45 pm
This is among my earliest memories of my Dad, a man not much given to playfulness. But he would sometimes give each of my toes a little wiggle and squeeze as he called them by name:
Big Tom Bumbo,
Sarah Hawssa, (could have been “Horssa”; he had a Maine accent)
Rhoda Whistle,
Penny Roo, and
Little Wee.
Funny the things we remember!
February 2nd, 2016 at 1:50 am
My family background is English and Irish but I have a variation of this too. It starts with the little toe and works up.
Little peed
Penny woed
Woody whistle
Molly hostle
Great big gobble, gobble, gobble.
The end rhyme ended with a tummy tickle
February 27th, 2016 at 5:29 pm
Slagapot, tomastrot, Longman, layers vend, and little peddler johnston how it sounded to me way back when. Probably the Americanized version.
March 9th, 2016 at 3:21 pm
This is so fun to hear everyone’s variations! I had to write and ask my mom to remind me of a couple of the toe names. I remember my Grandfather doing this to my toes when I was little. His family was mostly German and had lived in California for some time. He always said:
Nick-a-Pea
Penny Rou
Rou Whistle
Mary Hussle
and Old Tum Bumbo!
March 26th, 2016 at 8:36 am
All Kids love this song . because the songs very nice and easy.
April 24th, 2016 at 6:56 pm
This came down from my Mother’s English Family tradition like this:
Little Pea
Penny Wee
Mary Ossel
Rhoda Thessel (or Fessel)
Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!
I recently had surgery on my 2nd toe
and my son called asking about Rhoda Thessel – They never forget.
April 30th, 2016 at 4:01 pm
My grandmother had a similar rhyme; we’re from Maine. This is fascinating to see how different yet similar these rhymes are!
Ours was: Inky Peed
Penny Rude
Rudy Whistle
Mary Ossel
Great Tom Bumble
May 9th, 2016 at 5:00 pm
We were taught starting with little toe:
Ackey Pea
Penny Lou
Lootie Whistle
Mary Ossell
And Big Tom Bumble ( you need to wiggle the big toe while doing this one)
My mother who is Norwegian and from Minnesota taught us this.
June 5th, 2016 at 3:03 am
We heard these from our mother, who was from Chicago, both her parents being German. Starting with the big toe:
Old Tom Bubbles
Peely Ostle
Penny Ruly
Ruly Whistle
Little Piggy Wiggy (spoken in a high pitched voice while wiggling the toe)
June 5th, 2016 at 3:10 pm
To Blog moderator: please accept my edit as follows, thanks:
We heard these from our mother, who was from Chicago, both her parents being German. Starting with the big toe, and wiggling each toe:
Old Tom Bubbles
Peely Ostle
Penny Ruly
Ruly Whistle
Little Piggy Wiggy(spoken in a high pitched voice while wiggling the toe)
June 8th, 2016 at 5:04 pm
My family is Italian and our version starts with the pinky toe and ends with the big toe:
Qui qui qui
Penny roo
Rudy whistle
Mary hustle
Old tumble bumble
June 14th, 2016 at 11:45 pm
If am of German descent and I remember my Grandmother doing toe counting with the same rhyme.
Dicky peed
Penny rude
Ruda whistle
Maya Hassa
Big Tom Bum Bum
As children we would laugh and laugh. Apologies for the spelling
June 19th, 2016 at 12:17 am
Hello,
I am half Dane and my grandma used to tell me a rhyme about a little piggy getting stuck. I apologize for the spelling as I’m just sounding it out.
Ida da Ida sticka a stora that’s all I remember. She would use her finger and circle it in front of me and get closer to my belly. At the end me the little piggy would get the finger in the belly. Lol stuck piggy😀
I really y’all will be able to help me find this.
June 30th, 2016 at 2:41 am
How delightful to find this page!
I stepped on my dog’s wee toe and the subject of toes started running through my head and I remembered my mother in law (born in northeast Maine, near the Canadian border) playing the toe game with my baby son.
This is little Penny,
This is Penny Rue,
Rue Ossel,
May Ossel,
Tum Bumble, Tum Bumble, Tum Bumble.
I had never heard it before and decided to look it up. Imagine my surprise at all the variations.
July 12th, 2016 at 2:06 am
How the toe names came from Oslo to me: Annie Gilbert 4-15-1841 Oslo, Norway migrated to Pinnebog Michigan where she lived for 84 years and passed on in 1940. She had given the toe names to her granddaughter and to become my grandmother Lenore. About 1950 Lenore Gilbert McElroy taught the names to me: Tom Bubble, May Ahsso, Ru Isso, Ichy Pee, and Pee Russo. Then you are supposed to squeeze the little Pee Russo and wiggle it until the small one laughs or cries.
July 12th, 2016 at 2:39 pm
This is the version I remember my mom saying. She’s from German descent but my dad’s background is Norwegian. It was used for either the toes or fingers, starting with the little toe/finger and ending with the big toe/thumb (in a deep voice)…
Little Pea
Penny Rue
Rhody Whistle
Mary Hossel
and
Great Gobble Gossel
July 21st, 2016 at 7:39 pm
Billie F. wrote:
“My grandmother told us as small children from small to big toe:
Icky Pay,
Penny Roo,
Roo Whistle,
Mary Tossle,
and Tommy Bumble.
She also touched each toe as she called its name, wiggling the big toe a short time longer. Then she said, ‘These are your toes names. Did you know that?'”
Thanks for sharing Billie!
July 22nd, 2016 at 5:35 pm
Our family had a variation similar to many of the above. It went:
Pick a pea
Penny Rooley
Rooley Whistle
Peely Ostle and
Big Tom Bumble!
July 31st, 2016 at 12:33 am
Hi Lisa, Its funny but I call my godmother mama Lisa. Anyhow, the family rhyme for toes in my family is from pinky toe to big toe
Little Pete
Perry rude
Rudy hustle
Jackie whistle
And ole Tom bumbo
Of course Drawn out with a deeper voice for ole Tom. And with each toe to be held as the name is said
August 5th, 2016 at 7:10 pm
My Swedish mother taught it to me like this:
Orcapeed
Pennyrude
Rudeawhistle
MaryAwful
And Big Tom Bumble.
August 25th, 2016 at 11:42 pm
Seems like so many variations and depends on how someone heard it. Our relatives came from Scotland and Wales and said these rhymes. My Aunt who is 95 was rattling them off today with little changes.
Little Peter
Penny Rutter
Rudy Whistle
Matey Hossle
Great Gobble Gobble
August 31st, 2016 at 7:15 pm
My grandmother used to play with our toes with this rhyme as well, and I’ve continued it with my children and grandchildren. Some of the above comments were very close, but I didn’t see mine exactly.
Icky pee
Penny Rue
Rue Whistle
Mary Tossle
and OLD TOM BUMBLE (in a deep voice while bending the toe back and forth).
Such fun!
October 4th, 2016 at 1:03 am
How interesting! I was trying to see where this came from, my family’s version is almost entirely nonsensical: (starting with the pinky toe)
Lou-dee pee
Pee-dee lou
Lou-dee whistle
Whistle wossle
And great big knopple stopple! (wiggling the child’s big toe)
October 20th, 2016 at 11:45 pm
Just what I was looking for. I have one that my mother attributed to her mother-in-law (very English ancestry in a corner of New Hampshire for at least 8 generations.) Based on this website I’m suspecting that SHE may have gotten it from her husband’s ancestors, and not her own. They were born in Perth Scotland and Manchester England. That part of the family is small, and so only remembered by myself, my sister, and one cousin.
Of course all this is based on the sounds, and not the written words. Starting from little toe:
Icky Pinney
Pinney Roo
Roo Whistle
Mary Hassel
and BIG TOM BUM BUM (again, with a deep dramatic voice)
This is much like the submission from HeidiJoy, above
Anna
November 8th, 2016 at 9:29 pm
My mom would say this as she washed the grandchildren’s hand’s.
Starting with the pinky finger, ending with the thumb!
Little Wee
Penny Lou
Little Whistle
Mannie Hostel
Big Gobbler, Big Gobbler, Big Gobbler
November 13th, 2016 at 4:53 pm
My dad taught me this and I’m not sure if his mom or dad taught him but they were Norwegian, Czech, and Danish. I’ve seen only a couple of you post something similar to mine, maybe through the years as young children my family members heard the names a little wrong. We did ours from little toe to big toe.
Inky Pea
Penny Roo
Mary Osso
Rudy Whistle
And Ol’ Tom Bubble
I’d really like to know where this came from!
December 13th, 2016 at 2:52 pm
my great grandparents were from Norway, and this version has been passed down. The spelling is not right, but this is how it sounds:
tommytot
lickapot
longaman
leasavaun
little bitty inceman
December 14th, 2016 at 7:51 pm
My great great Grandpa on my dad’s side is from Denmark. Our family says the rhyme this way, starting with the little toe and moving to the big toe. “Little pea, Penny Roo, Rudy Whistle, Mary Hossle, and great big GOBBLE GOBBLE!!!” Then the person gets tickled. Not sure of the spelling or accuracy, but this is the rhyme I grew up with.
December 19th, 2016 at 8:50 pm
My mother said this version (for both toes and fingers), starting with the big toe/thumb (learned, I believe, from her grandmother in upstate NY):
Tommy Bumble
Willy Orstle [rhymes with whistle]
Willy Roo
Ruley Whistle
Inky Peeeeeeee…. [in a high pitched voice, while grabbing the little toe/finger and wiggling it!]
December 20th, 2016 at 4:41 pm
My grandmother, who was originally from Wisconsin, taught us this one. It starts with the last toe and goes backward through the big toe:
Icky Pea
Penny Roo
Roo Izzle
May Oozle
and, Old Tommy Bumble (you shake the big toe)
Have always wondered about the origin, but now think it’s Nordic after reading this site. I do know that my great grandmother (her mother) had Pennsylvania Dutch relatives (really German).
December 28th, 2016 at 4:07 am
Ok- here’s what my grandmother played on my toes:
A-ka-pea
Mary Tassel
Ludie Whistle
Penny Rue and
Ole Tom Bungle.
December 28th, 2016 at 4:08 am
Mahalo and Happy New Year’
December 30th, 2016 at 10:15 pm
Fantastic, people are commenting here since 2007!
In our family (we are from Germany) it goes like this (for more than 80 years and more than 4 generations)
(We are playing it with the fingers and start with the thumb):
“Old Tembembel
Jack Fissel
Bettsy Tossel
Mary Lou
und der Kleine, das ist der
Pivi”
January 14th, 2017 at 4:26 am
Our version starts small toe to large touching each and shaking big toe at end.
Lil peed
Pod Lou
Lood whistle
Mary Hustle
And GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE GOBBLE
Mom and Grandma would say and our heritage is Penn Dutch (German) and English for sure, not sure of the rest.
I would do this at bedtime for children I sat for, not having kids of my own. Heard one wanted his Mom to do Lil Pead!
February 6th, 2017 at 3:08 pm
My mom, who is 83, born in Michigan, whose father emigrated in about 1909 from Sweden to Maine, used to do the toe rhyme with me when I was a child in the 1960s. Here is how I heard it:
Icky Pee
Penny Roo
Rooey Roosel
Mary Thossel
And OLD TOM BUMBLE!
In my mind they were all names of people.
February 7th, 2017 at 2:02 pm
That’s cool!
February 22nd, 2017 at 1:44 pm
We always said (starting at the little toe):
Little Pea
Polly Roo
Rhoda Hostle
Hibbledee hobbledee
Great Big Rover Dog (then tickle the tummy and say, “Woof, woof, woof.”