"A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term only dates from the ...
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late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes.
From the mid-16th century nursery rhymes begin to be recorded in English plays, and most popular rhymes date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The first English collections, Tommy Thumb´s Song Book and a sequel, Tommy Thumb´s Pretty Song Book, were published by Mary Cooper in 1744. Publisher John Newbery´s stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose´s Melody, or, Sonnets for the Cradle (London, 1780).[note 1]" - (en.wikipedia.org 23.02.2020)
