Why Some People Call Sprinkles 'Jimmies'

Across the United States, names for food and beverages vary by region. Depending on where you live, you'd ask for either soda or pop when ordering a drink at a restaurant. You may start your day with hot cakes, flapjacks, or pancakes. If you are in the Pacific Northwest, you might order a side of jojos instead of fried potato wedges with your meal. On the East Coast, the candy bits used to decorate ice cream, donuts, and cupcakes are referred to as "jimmies."

Some people call sprinkles jimmies because it is actually a trademarked name for the dessert topping. When the New York candy company Just Born first started producing chocolate sprinkles, the founder named the new product after the man who was operating the machine in 1930, James "Jimmy" Bartholemew. According to Boston ice cream shop Brigham's, it was the first business to promote jimmies as a free ice cream topping.

However, others claim that jimmies are named for The Jimmy Fund, a childhood cancer charity. The story goes that Brigham's ice cream shop held a fundraiser in support of the fund by charging extra for the topping that came to be known as jimmies. This claim appears to be less credible, though, as Just Born started calling its product jimmies long before the charity was founded in 1948. Depending on where you are in the U.S., some folks will tell you that jimmies only refers to chocolate sprinkles, which had the original trademark.

Despite the East Coast having a large population, the term sprinkles seems to be more popular across the country. The name may be even more recognized than ever thanks to the trendy gourmet cupcake chain Sprinkles. Across the world, sprinkles are also known as shots, hundreds-and-thousands, hagelslag, and vermicelli. Names like French nonpareils, as well as quins and dragées, all refer to different specific shapes of sprinkles. Nonpareils are tiny and perfectly spherical, quins are round and flat, and dragées are hard candy orbs that vary in size. You can find this sugary confetti in a variety of sizes and coatings, including edible gold. 

In the Netherlands, chocolate sprinkles aren't even just reserved for dessert. The topping is served on buttered white bread as a breakfast dish. In Australia and New Zealand, locals make a similar dish with a colorful twist in the form of fairy bread – it is the same snack but with rainbow sprinkles instead.