What do you call common childrens games in your language? And are there any games that aren’t as common elsewhere?
September 25, 2024
For instance, in Norway we call hide and seek gjemsel, where the word doesn't mean anything in and itself, but is a play on the word gjemme (=hide). Games such as catch are usually called some variation of sisten or har'n.
24 comments
The game Simon Says (where you have to follow instructions given by the leader, but only if he or she says “Simon Says” before giving the instruction), when I was growing up we used to call it O’Grady Says.
Hide and seek in Dutch is “verstoppertje” which means “little hiding” and in French “cache-cache” which means “hide-hide.
[Green Light, Red Light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_(game)) in Dutch is “Een twee drie piano” (one two three piano) and in French “un deux trois soleil” (one two three sun)
Gemmeleg/skjul (hide and seek) and ‘fangeleg’ (catch) would be the danish equivalents.
We also have ‘sanglege’ where you sing nursery rhymes type songs accompanied by movements, and ‘klappeleg’ where you do nursery rhymes accompanied by clapping.
Knick Knock Nanny – That game where you ring house doorbell and run off and hide. The US calls it something else and also most Europeans do as well. Even towns and cities in the UK do, so i really don’t know where my versions name came from lol.
We call tag “berek” which in Yiddish apparently means “knee” and it was originally a game Jewish kids played just like tag but you had to touch the knee specifically.
Some call “tag” “ganiany” which is an old fashion way of saying “man who’s being chased”
We call “hide and sick “chowany” which loosely means “man who’s being hidden”… yeah we have a lot of games named with literally what they’re about, I feel German now…
The only interesting names I can think of right now are:
Пиян морков (Drunk carrot) which is called Keep away in English according to Wikipedia.
Цар и лайна (A king and shits). I can’t find what it’s called in other languages. It’s played on a basketball field using only one of the baskets.
Пържолки (Steaks, pork chops) – Red hands.
Childrens games get everywhere – it’s a huge subject for folklorists. They don’t belong to any nation. The “naa na na naa na” call was musically notated in Scotland in 1812 and a few decades later in Ghana – it could predate the Neanderthals emigrating for all anybody knows.
Italy
Nascondino (little hiding)= hide and seek
Acchiapparella (catching up kinda)= kids running after each other
Strega stregetta comanda colori (literally, witch, little witch in charge of colors)= one kid is the witch and screams the name of a color after reciting a short poem. All other kids have to run from the “witch” and touch something of the color screamed by the witch, if they do they are safe.
Palla avvelenata (poisonous ball)= kinda like dodgeball
Sette e schiaccia/different names but in proper italian is ” (you reach) seven and then spike a volleyball”= kids create a circle and pass the ball to each other using their hands (like vallyball) and collectively count, when they reach the seven touch the kid who should make that touch has to spike the ball to the other kids, if a kids gets hit they are out. The kids play until only 2 or 1 “survives”.
Merda (shit, literally)= card game played with traditional italian cards.
Pikachu (pikachu, like the pokemon)= basically rock paper scissors but if you loose three time the other kid can slap both your face cheeks (and then they become as red as the ones pikachu has, that’s the reason behind the name).
On the west coast we call it gjemmeleken – the hiding game. And tikken for catch, though I don’t know if this has a meaning.
In Italy it was called “tre tre, giù giù” (three three, down down).
In Swedish hide and seek is kurragömma, kura being an old word for crouching and gömma meaning hide. Catch is tafatt which pretty much means catch. Though where i live people sometimes calls it jaga, meaning hunt.
In Finnish(second native lang for me) hide and seek is piiloleikki meaning the hiding game and catch is hippa which im not sure what it means.
In Swedish hide and seek is kurragömma, kura being an old word for crouching and gömma meaning hide. Catch is tafatt which pretty much means catch. Though where i live people sometimes calls it jaga, meaning hunt.
In Finnish(second native lang for me) hide and seek is piiloleikki meaning the hiding game and catch is hippa which im not sure what it means.
Italy:
Nascondino (hide and seek, the word means literally “little hiding”). The starting point is called “tana” (literally lair or nest).
“Catch” is called with variations of the word “wolf” in italian depending on the rules, because the one trying to catch the other kids is the wolf, so there is “lupo ghiaccio” (means ice wolf, because when one is caught he has to remain in place, he can be saved by other kids if they free him by touching him. the wolf wins when all other kids are “ice”) and “lupo lupaccio” (means wolf bad-wolf, beacuse when one is caught then becomes a wolf). Also in the “lupo” games a tana can be present as a safe place where the wolf can’t catch you as long as you are touching the tana. For example if enough kids are in the tana they can do a “safe rope” by holding hand with the last one touching the tana and touch an “iced” kid to free him.
“Red light, Green light” is called “Uno, due, tre, stella!”, which means One, two, three, Star!”
Hide and seek is called “cache-cache” = “hide-hide”
Tag is called “chat” = “cat”, because you basically play cat and mouse and then there are many variations like “chat perché” = “perched cat”, you can’t be tagged if you’re perched on something, “chat-glacé” = “frozen cat” where you freeze if you’re touched and you slowly melt down, if you melt all the way before a “mouse” touched you again, you become a cat, etc. Easily my favourite game as a child.
Green light, red light is called “1, 2, 3, soleil” = “1, 2, 3, Sun”
Dodgeball is called “ball aux prisonniers” or “ballon prisonnier” = “ball to the prisoners” or “ball prisoners”
Hide and Seek = Verstecken (literally: hide)
Hopscotch = Himmel und Hölle (lit. heaven and hell) or Hüpfekästchen (lit. hop box or hop square)
Telephone = Stille Post (lit. silent mail) or Flüsterpost (whisper mail)
I Packed My Bag = Kofferpacken (lit. packing the suitcase)
Truth or Dare? = Wahrheit oder Pflicht? (lit. truth or duty)
Wink Murder = Mord im Dunkeln (lit. murder in the dark)
I Spy = Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst (lit. I’m seeing something that you’re not)
Rock Paper Scissors = Stein Schere Papier or Schnick schnack schnuck 🙂
It’s quite regional. [Here’s a map](https://i.imgur.com/eQ0VVD2.jpg) of names for the game tag. The “formal” name is commonly considered *tafatt* (~”take ahold”), but it’s not widely used in vernacular. *Kull* has been spreading like an invasive species from it’s native Stockholm. Personally I say *datten*.
Hide-and-seek is commonly *kurragömma* (from *kurra* “cower” + *gömma* “hide”).
In Hungary we call Hide abd seek “Bújócska-fogócska” meaning “Little hiding-Little catching”.
The meaning of little is not small or few, but the same as the -ino ending in many Italian words.
Skrivalnice, basically hide and seek, where “skrivati se” means “to be hiding”. One kid counts down to zero, the others hide, etc.
Raubarji in žendarji (robbers and cops), its an old game where the players need to find out who is the robber, in a way similair to among us, maybe. But when we played it, it was total chaos, two teams against each other, running around and fake shooting with fingerpistols.. I don’t know how it came to that, we were kids.
Gnilo jajce (rotten egg), its a game played in a circle sitting down, and then one kid walks around them, and places a “rotten egg” behind someones back, which the kid needs to notice and start chasing the one who was circling, otherwise they become the rotten egg.
Zemljokrast, (land stealing), you draw a circle aka “the world map”, then the circle is equally divided into as many slices as there are players. Then the players drop sticks, which determine who they are “attacking”, and they steal the land by drawing new borders, as big as they can without leaving their territory.
Zapik or Stop igra, basically “tag”, but you also designate a safe zone where you can’t be tagged, but also can’t stay for long, or you get tagged.
Ristanc, you draw a pattern on the ground, like a rocket with a couple of numbered brackets. The players have to throw a rock, hit the brackets, and jump on either one or two legs from start to finish and back to start. If they succeed, they pass the round.. untill there is only one player left who wins the game, I think.
Slepe miši (blind mice), one kid gets blindfolded and needs to catch the others who make sounds, etc.
Pepček, (the name is a diminutive of Pepe), you need at least three players and one ball. One kid is pepe and the others pass the ball over pepes head, untill the ball is caught, then the one who last passed the ball becomes the pepček.
There is a subsection of this, what did you call the place when playing tag where you were “safe” and couldn’t be caught? Some people call it base, but we called it “cree” which I have never come across elsewhere.
hide and seek is криеница (krienitsa) – kriene is hiding so with the itsa sufix you make it an object.
We had so many games I’m sure even people from different cities played different ones so there are no way they were common
One of the most popular games when I was a child, has been cancelled (“Wer fürchtet sich vor dem schwarzen Mann”). Not sure if it exists under a different name nowadays.
Hide & Seek ist called “Verstecken”, which is the german word for hiding. And catching is called “Fangen” (the German translation) or “Fangerl” (dialect)
Another popular game on childrens parties is “Sesselkreis” (or “Reise nach Jerusalem” in Germany) where a number of kids runs around empty chairs while music plays, and when the music stops, the kids must sit down – the catch is, that there is always 1 chair less than the number of kids, and the kid that doesn’t get a chair is out, and one more chair is removed for the next round.
Völkerball (a version of Dodgeball) was popular in the past, but I believe they widely stopped playing it in schools as it is not meeting todays educational standards.
Hide and seek = Escondidas (Hidden)
Tag = Apanhada (not really sure if it is the same thing) (Catched)
Green light red light = Macaquinho de chinês (Chinese monkey)
Rock paper scissors = Pedra, papel, tesoura
Telephone = Telefone
Truth or dare = Verdade ou consequência (Truth or consequence)
Skipping rope = Saltar à corda
Wink murder = Assassino (Murderer) or Polícia e ladrão (Police and Thief)
Blind man’s buff = Cabra-cega (Blind goat)
Edit: added the translations
Tag has multiple names in Swedish but we say kull in Stockholmm. Hide and seek is called kurragömma, gömma means “hiding place” or “to hide” but the only meaning of kurra I know of is your stomach rumbling.
24 comments
The game Simon Says (where you have to follow instructions given by the leader, but only if he or she says “Simon Says” before giving the instruction), when I was growing up we used to call it O’Grady Says.
Hide and seek in Dutch is “verstoppertje” which means “little hiding” and in French “cache-cache” which means “hide-hide.
[Green Light, Red Light](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statues_(game)) in Dutch is “Een twee drie piano” (one two three piano) and in French “un deux trois soleil” (one two three sun)
Gemmeleg/skjul (hide and seek) and ‘fangeleg’ (catch) would be the danish equivalents.
We also have ‘sanglege’ where you sing nursery rhymes type songs accompanied by movements, and ‘klappeleg’ where you do nursery rhymes accompanied by clapping.
Knick Knock Nanny – That game where you ring house doorbell and run off and hide. The US calls it something else and also most Europeans do as well. Even towns and cities in the UK do, so i really don’t know where my versions name came from lol.
We call tag “berek” which in Yiddish apparently means “knee” and it was originally a game Jewish kids played just like tag but you had to touch the knee specifically.
Some call “tag” “ganiany” which is an old fashion way of saying “man who’s being chased”
We call “hide and sick “chowany” which loosely means “man who’s being hidden”… yeah we have a lot of games named with literally what they’re about, I feel German now…
The only interesting names I can think of right now are:
Пиян морков (Drunk carrot) which is called Keep away in English according to Wikipedia.
Цар и лайна (A king and shits). I can’t find what it’s called in other languages. It’s played on a basketball field using only one of the baskets.
Пържолки (Steaks, pork chops) – Red hands.
Childrens games get everywhere – it’s a huge subject for folklorists. They don’t belong to any nation. The “naa na na naa na” call was musically notated in Scotland in 1812 and a few decades later in Ghana – it could predate the Neanderthals emigrating for all anybody knows.
Italy
Nascondino (little hiding)= hide and seek
Acchiapparella (catching up kinda)= kids running after each other
Strega stregetta comanda colori (literally, witch, little witch in charge of colors)= one kid is the witch and screams the name of a color after reciting a short poem. All other kids have to run from the “witch” and touch something of the color screamed by the witch, if they do they are safe.
Palla avvelenata (poisonous ball)= kinda like dodgeball
Sette e schiaccia/different names but in proper italian is ” (you reach) seven and then spike a volleyball”= kids create a circle and pass the ball to each other using their hands (like vallyball) and collectively count, when they reach the seven touch the kid who should make that touch has to spike the ball to the other kids, if a kids gets hit they are out. The kids play until only 2 or 1 “survives”.
Merda (shit, literally)= card game played with traditional italian cards.
Pikachu (pikachu, like the pokemon)= basically rock paper scissors but if you loose three time the other kid can slap both your face cheeks (and then they become as red as the ones pikachu has, that’s the reason behind the name).
On the west coast we call it gjemmeleken – the hiding game. And tikken for catch, though I don’t know if this has a meaning.
A question for our fellow Europeans: does [this](https://caragarbatella.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3-3-giu-giu.jpg) children game exists (or existed) in your country?
In Italy it was called “tre tre, giù giù” (three three, down down).
A question for our fellow Europeans: does [this](https://caragarbatella.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/3-3-giu-giu.jpg) children game exists (or existed) in your country?
In Italy it was called “tre tre, giù giù” (three three, down down).
In Swedish hide and seek is kurragömma, kura being an old word for crouching and gömma meaning hide. Catch is tafatt which pretty much means catch. Though where i live people sometimes calls it jaga, meaning hunt.
In Finnish(second native lang for me) hide and seek is piiloleikki meaning the hiding game and catch is hippa which im not sure what it means.
In Swedish hide and seek is kurragömma, kura being an old word for crouching and gömma meaning hide. Catch is tafatt which pretty much means catch. Though where i live people sometimes calls it jaga, meaning hunt.
In Finnish(second native lang for me) hide and seek is piiloleikki meaning the hiding game and catch is hippa which im not sure what it means.
Italy:
Nascondino (hide and seek, the word means literally “little hiding”). The starting point is called “tana” (literally lair or nest).
“Catch” is called with variations of the word “wolf” in italian depending on the rules, because the one trying to catch the other kids is the wolf, so there is “lupo ghiaccio” (means ice wolf, because when one is caught he has to remain in place, he can be saved by other kids if they free him by touching him. the wolf wins when all other kids are “ice”) and “lupo lupaccio” (means wolf bad-wolf, beacuse when one is caught then becomes a wolf). Also in the “lupo” games a tana can be present as a safe place where the wolf can’t catch you as long as you are touching the tana. For example if enough kids are in the tana they can do a “safe rope” by holding hand with the last one touching the tana and touch an “iced” kid to free him.
“Red light, Green light” is called “Uno, due, tre, stella!”, which means One, two, three, Star!”
Hide and seek is called “cache-cache” = “hide-hide”
Tag is called “chat” = “cat”, because you basically play cat and mouse and then there are many variations like “chat perché” = “perched cat”, you can’t be tagged if you’re perched on something, “chat-glacé” = “frozen cat” where you freeze if you’re touched and you slowly melt down, if you melt all the way before a “mouse” touched you again, you become a cat, etc. Easily my favourite game as a child.
Green light, red light is called “1, 2, 3, soleil” = “1, 2, 3, Sun”
Dodgeball is called “ball aux prisonniers” or “ballon prisonnier” = “ball to the prisoners” or “ball prisoners”
Hide and Seek = Verstecken (literally: hide)
Hopscotch = Himmel und Hölle (lit. heaven and hell) or Hüpfekästchen (lit. hop box or hop square)
Skipping rope = Seil(chen)springen
Tag = Fangen (lit. catch)
Egg-and-spoon race = Eierlaufen (lit. egg-running)
Telephone = Stille Post (lit. silent mail) or Flüsterpost (whisper mail)
I Packed My Bag = Kofferpacken (lit. packing the suitcase)
Truth or Dare? = Wahrheit oder Pflicht? (lit. truth or duty)
Wink Murder = Mord im Dunkeln (lit. murder in the dark)
I Spy = Ich sehe was, was du nicht siehst (lit. I’m seeing something that you’re not)
Rock Paper Scissors = Stein Schere Papier or Schnick schnack schnuck 🙂
It’s quite regional. [Here’s a map](https://i.imgur.com/eQ0VVD2.jpg) of names for the game tag. The “formal” name is commonly considered *tafatt* (~”take ahold”), but it’s not widely used in vernacular. *Kull* has been spreading like an invasive species from it’s native Stockholm. Personally I say *datten*.
Hide-and-seek is commonly *kurragömma* (from *kurra* “cower” + *gömma* “hide”).
In Hungary we call Hide abd seek “Bújócska-fogócska” meaning “Little hiding-Little catching”.
The meaning of little is not small or few, but the same as the -ino ending in many Italian words.
Skrivalnice, basically hide and seek, where “skrivati se” means “to be hiding”. One kid counts down to zero, the others hide, etc.
Raubarji in žendarji (robbers and cops), its an old game where the players need to find out who is the robber, in a way similair to among us, maybe. But when we played it, it was total chaos, two teams against each other, running around and fake shooting with fingerpistols.. I don’t know how it came to that, we were kids.
Gnilo jajce (rotten egg), its a game played in a circle sitting down, and then one kid walks around them, and places a “rotten egg” behind someones back, which the kid needs to notice and start chasing the one who was circling, otherwise they become the rotten egg.
Zemljokrast, (land stealing), you draw a circle aka “the world map”, then the circle is equally divided into as many slices as there are players. Then the players drop sticks, which determine who they are “attacking”, and they steal the land by drawing new borders, as big as they can without leaving their territory.
Zapik or Stop igra, basically “tag”, but you also designate a safe zone where you can’t be tagged, but also can’t stay for long, or you get tagged.
Ristanc, you draw a pattern on the ground, like a rocket with a couple of numbered brackets. The players have to throw a rock, hit the brackets, and jump on either one or two legs from start to finish and back to start. If they succeed, they pass the round.. untill there is only one player left who wins the game, I think.
Slepe miši (blind mice), one kid gets blindfolded and needs to catch the others who make sounds, etc.
Pepček, (the name is a diminutive of Pepe), you need at least three players and one ball. One kid is pepe and the others pass the ball over pepes head, untill the ball is caught, then the one who last passed the ball becomes the pepček.
There is a subsection of this, what did you call the place when playing tag where you were “safe” and couldn’t be caught? Some people call it base, but we called it “cree” which I have never come across elsewhere.
hide and seek is криеница (krienitsa) – kriene is hiding so with the itsa sufix you make it an object.
We had so many games I’m sure even people from different cities played different ones so there are no way they were common
One of the most popular games when I was a child, has been cancelled (“Wer fürchtet sich vor dem schwarzen Mann”). Not sure if it exists under a different name nowadays.
Hide & Seek ist called “Verstecken”, which is the german word for hiding. And catching is called “Fangen” (the German translation) or “Fangerl” (dialect)
Another popular game on childrens parties is “Sesselkreis” (or “Reise nach Jerusalem” in Germany) where a number of kids runs around empty chairs while music plays, and when the music stops, the kids must sit down – the catch is, that there is always 1 chair less than the number of kids, and the kid that doesn’t get a chair is out, and one more chair is removed for the next round.
Völkerball (a version of Dodgeball) was popular in the past, but I believe they widely stopped playing it in schools as it is not meeting todays educational standards.
Hide and seek = Escondidas (Hidden)
Tag = Apanhada (not really sure if it is the same thing) (Catched)
Green light red light = Macaquinho de chinês (Chinese monkey)
Rock paper scissors = Pedra, papel, tesoura
Telephone = Telefone
Truth or dare = Verdade ou consequência (Truth or consequence)
Skipping rope = Saltar à corda
Wink murder = Assassino (Murderer) or Polícia e ladrão (Police and Thief)
Blind man’s buff = Cabra-cega (Blind goat)
Edit: added the translations
Tag has multiple names in Swedish but we say kull in Stockholmm. Hide and seek is called kurragömma, gömma means “hiding place” or “to hide” but the only meaning of kurra I know of is your stomach rumbling.