How do you choose to order those colorful sugary confections atop your ice cream? Jimmies, sprinkles, and nonpareils are just a few of the names used to describe the rainbow deliciousness featured in the image above. As a Massachusetts native, I have always been curious about why my family and friends refer to these toppings as “jimmies,” so I decided to get to the bottom of the mystery behind the name to find out once and for all, who is Jimmy?

An Origin Story?

Many believe that the term "jimmies" originated in our very own city of Boston. The story behind the name is as follows: jimmies are named after Einar “Jimmy” Gustafon, the young cancer patient who created the fundraising program, The Jimmy Fund. The Jimmy Fund used to be the official charity of the Boston Red Sox. At games, ice cream stands would donate to the fund if you chose to buy sprinkles for your ice cream, hence taking on the nickname "jimmies". To my surprise, jimmies is as widely used in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and even Tennessee as it is in Boston. This information helps to debunk this myth, despite how sweet it is (no pun intended)! To this day, there are still ice cream parlors in Massachusetts who donate their sprinkle proceeds to The Jimmy Fund. 

Taking a Dark Turn

A short poll I conducted among my friends determined that jimmies may be synonymous with chocolate sprinkles rather than rainbow, bringing up a second and more sinister origin of jimmies. Were chocolate jimmies named after Jim Crow laws? This racist wives’ tale was proved to be incorrect by a multitude of mythbusters, yet some still choose to refrain from using the nickname, resorting to the more PC sprinkles instead. 

Brooklyn-based company “Just Born,” famously known for their Peeps, is widely credited with creating the chocolate topping in the 1930’s and naming it Jimmies. A representative of the company still holds this claim true, attributing the name to Jimmy Bartholomew, the employee who worked the machine that manufactured them. However, with further research it was discovered that Just Born wasn’t the first to create this confection. Newspaper archives advertise “chocolate sprinkles” as early as the mid 1920’s. Yet, references to chocolate jimmies didn’t show regularly until WWII in the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

The debate of the origin of jimmies is far from over, but we can take comfort in knowing that the term is used across the country. Jimmies fan or not, the popular topping is here to stay.