Children playing Duck, Duck Goose. Children sit in a circle on the grass, while a girl chases a boy around the circle. A boy, presumably an it who had been caught previously is in the center. A school bus is in the background.
28 December 2021
Sometimes you search and search and come up with nothing. Such is the case with the origin of the children’s game Duck, Duck, Goose, or as it is called in Minnesota, Duck, Duck, Gray Duck. While I can find references to the game going back to the 1920s, I can find nothing other than speculation as to the origin or why the game has different wording in Minnesota.
The earliest mention of the game that I have found is in the Oak Park, Illinois weekly paper Oak Leaves for 26 July 1924. The paper also gives a succinct description of the game:
The girls had tired of “Last Couple Out” by this time, so I entered “Duck, Duck, Goose!” the chosen “it” runs around the outside of the circle touching the heads of those of the circle. He names about three “Duck.” But, on touching the fourth and saying “Goose,” he is immediately pursued around the circle. This is but a variation of “drop the handkerchief” without the hanky.
The choice of goose is probably due to that word’s long use to mean a fool or simpleton. The duck was probably chosen simply to contrast with the goose. We can see just such a use of goose in an anonymous sermon from 1547:
If I be euil reuiled, shall I stand stil like a goose, or a foole, with my finger in my mouth? Shal I be such an ydiot & diserde, to suffre euery man to speake upon me, what they list, to rail what thei list, to raile what thei list, to spewe out all their venyme agaynst me; at their pleasures? Is it not conuenient, that he that speaketh euill shoulde be aunswered accordingly?
I found a 1936 reference to the Minnesota variant, duck, duck, gray duck, but no clue as to why the wording is different. From Foster and Headley’s Education in the Kindergarten:
Duck, Duck, Grey Duck
Formation: Circle.
Action: The child who is it runs around the outside of the circle. As he passes the children he touches certain individuals and says “Duck, Duck, Grey Duck.” When he touches the child and says “Grey Duck” he starts to run, and the child tagged follows in pursuit trying to catch him. If he is caught before he returns to his place, he must go into the middle of the circle, and there he must stay squatting like a duck until the game is over.
Both Foster and Headley were Minnesotans who had taught kindergarten and were professors of education at the University of Minnesota. But they give no explanation for why gray duck rather than the standard goose.
I have seen suggestions that a similar game in Sweden is called Anka, Anka, Grå Anka, which is literally Duck, Duck, Gray Duck, and that Swedish immigrants brought that version of the game to Minnesota, which has a large Nordic population. Such variations in children’s games is common (cf. ring around the rosie), so the explanation is plausible and could very well be correct, but I have yet to see any actual evidence to support it.
An innovation in the Minnesota version of the game is to use a variety of colors, such as red duck, blue duck, green duck, gray duck, and when gray duck is spoken, the pursuit begins. But as can be seen from the 1936 version listed above, this is a relatively new addition to the game and can’t explain what gray duck is doing there in the first place.
Sources:
Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE), 2013, s.v. duck duck goose, n.
“An Homelie Agaynst Contencion and Braulynge” (1547). Certayne Sermons, or Homilies Appoynted by the Kynges Maiestie, to Bee Declared and Redde by All Persons. London: Rychard Grafton, 1547, sig. Y2.v. Early English Books Online (EEBO).
Foster, Josephine C. and Neith E. Headley, Education in the Kindergarten. New York: American Book, 1936, 244. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Macalus, Austen. “Why Are Minnesotans the Only Ones to Play Duck, Duck, Gray Duck?” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), 26 April 2019. https://www.startribune.com/why-do-minnesotans-play-duck-duck-gray-duck-instead-of-duck-duck-goose/502474351/
“Playground Venture.” Oak Leaves (Oak Park, Illinois), 26 July 1924, 43. NewspaperArchive.com.
Strickler, Jeff. “The Game Is Duck, Duck Gray Duck. Or Is It?” Star Tribune (Minneapolis), 26 March 2014.
Photo credit: Sage Ross, 2007. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.