If you’re an ice cream fanatic like we are (who wouldn’t be with all that rich, cold, creamy goodness?) then you’re probably familiar with the only thing that can hold a candle to the delectable treat: toppings. Whether you like a good old-fashioned vanilla scoop or like to venture into the territory of even the wildest of ice cream flavors, nothing brings your scoop to the next level like toppings. There’s everything from sandy cookie crumbs to gummy candy bits to nature’s own demure and sophisticated topping—fruit, of course! Your taste (and mileage) may vary when it comes to ice cream toppings, but no matter your preferred flavor of ice cream or your topping of choice, there’s one rainbow-colored confectionary topping that will please adults and children alike: sprinkles.

They come in many shapes and flavors, from the color-coordinated to an all out rainbow-hoopla, and everything in between. If you’re looking for a sweet, aesthetically pleasing way to bring your ice cream game to the next level, look no further than sprinkles. They’re anything but run-of-the-mill.

But just where did sprinkles come from? Whose idea was it to create little dollops of candy-coated fun that bring a smile to anyone’s face who has the pleasure of consuming them? It turns out there’s a lot more to sprinkles than meets the eye, including a mythical origin story and more than a few fun names for the different varieties of sprinkles out there.

The origin story of sprinkles

Exactly who invented the topping we know (and love) is up for debate. Recipes that include vague references to what we today call sprinkles date back to the eighteenth century in France, where bakers used “nonpareils” to decorate cakes, desserts and other sweets. Today, confectioners still use the term “nonpareils,” though it typically refers to a specific type of sprinkle, rather than the topping as a whole. Nonpareils are minuscule colored balls made out of a combination of sugar and starch. The tiny balls of sugary goodness are often used in baking to top creamy frosting and give a colorful flair to neutral-colored desserts.

Despite the French name “nonpareils” pointing to a French origin of the decadent dessert topping, the origin is still up for debate. There is just as much evidence that sprinkles could have in fact been created by the Dutch or be an American invention. There is even an eighteenth-century American wedding cake recipe complete with frosting and nonpareils for decoration which points to a US origin story. 

One thing we do know is that it took famous Dutch chocolatiers, whose chocolate is renowned around the world, until 1936 to perfect the chocolate sprinkle. The topping wasn’t even used for desserts originally, though, instead chocolate sprinkles were used as a topper for artisan breads and even toast.

We may never know exactly who created sprinkles as we know and love them today, and that’s what makes them even more fun!

A different name for the same treat

Now that we have the origin story (or rather, lack thereof) down, there’s another interesting fact about sprinkles that you may not be familiar with if you live in areas where sprinkles are referred to as just that—sprinkles.

If you live in New England, there’s a different name for sprinkles that might just throw you for a loop if you’re from out of town. Sprinkles in this part of the United States are referred to as “jimmies.” 

The history of this quirky name for our favorite ice cream topping comes from 1920s Brooklyn, NY where an entrepreneur named Samuel Born started a candy company called Just Born. One of the employees of Just Born named James Bartholomew (nicknamed, you guessed it, Jimmy) worked on a machine at the candy company that created Just Born’s newest confectionary invention—what we know today as sprinkles. The urban legend says that the invention was coined “jimmies” after the operator of the machine that created the candies!

After the invention of “jimmies” and the coining of the name, the candy invention made its way down the East Coast to Boston, where Brigham’s Ice Cream Shop became the first place to begin offering jimmies on their ice cream as an additional sweet topping.

Oddly enough, though, there is an alternative origin story to the name “jimmies” that is up for debate, just like the original creators of sprinkles altogether are up for debate (Dutch? French? American? We may never truly know.)

In this alternative history of the “jimmies” sprinkle name-origin, the name still became popular thanks to Brigham’s Ice Cream Shop serving up jimmies on each and every scoop, but the name didn’t come from Just Born’s employee, Jimmy. Instead, the name is said to have come from Dr. Sidney Farber. Dr. Farber was a well-known researcher and doctor in the Boston area who co-founded the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. According to this version of sprinkles history, Dr. Farber founded a cancer charity named after one of his child patients, The Jimmy Fund.

Dr. Farber’s nephew opened Brigham’s Ice Cream Shop and, instead of giving away sprinkles for free, charged an extra penny for the topping—a penny that went towards Brigham’s uncle’s charity The Jimmy Fund. This version of the story goes that this is the reason sprinkles came to be known as “jimmies,” and that the name just stuck!

Whichever nation created our beloved sprinkles, and no matter what name you call them, there’s no doubt that ice cream and sprinkles just go together. That’s the one thing both origin stories of the name “jimmies” have in common, after all—the name came to popularity due to the use of sprinkles as an ice cream topping! 

While there are a million different ways to top your scoop (or two, or three—we aren’t counting) of Besties Ice Cream, one thing’s for certain: sprinkling the rainbow onto your flavor of choice is bound to brighten your day.