# Origin of "Rock-A-Bye Baby" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 31, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-rock-a-bye-baby/47870 "2000-12-31T04:21:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Persephone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecc23a/32.png) [@Persephone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Persephone)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2000, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-rock-a-bye-baby/47870/1 "2000-12-31T04:21:25Z")
I searched the archives, but either I was doing it wrong, or there really isn’t anything there about this (my guess is that I’m doing it wrong), but I’m curious as to the origin of this nursery rhyme, and it’s meaning. It’s one of my three-year-old’s favorites, but I just don’t get it. Why is the baby in a cradle _in a tree?_ And why don’t children completely freak at the thought of that baby falling out of the tree when the rhyme gets to the “_when_ the bough breaks” part? It’s not “if” the bough breaks, which would imply that perhaps the baby could stay up there safely for a while. Noooooo. It’s “when,” which states quite plainly that that kid is _definitely_ going to come crashing down, eventually becoming a tangle of broken bones and smashed cradle. Can anyone help me out here? ---
**Author:** ![Soup\_Nazi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ad7895/32.png) [@Soup\_Nazi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soup_Nazi)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2000, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-rock-a-bye-baby/47870/2 "2000-12-31T04:52:17Z")
I looked it up on Lycos and this is what I found [http://www.sca.org.au/bacchus\_wood/origins\_of\_nursery\_rhymes.html](http://www.sca.org.au/bacchus_wood/origins_of_nursery_rhymes.html) It says that a young pilgrim boy observed American Indians building cradles for thier babies out of birch limbs and hanging them in the trees for the wind to gently rock them to sleep.