"Mary Mack" ("Miss Mary Mack") is a clapping game of unknown origin. It is first attested in the book The Counting Out Rhymes of Children by Henry Carrington Bolton (1888), whose version was collected in West Chester, Pennsylvania. It is well known in various parts of the United States, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom and in New Zealand and has been called "the most common hand-clapping game in the English-speaking world". In the game, two children stand or sit opposite to each other, and clap hands according to the rhyming song. The same song is also used as a skipping rope rhyme, although rarely so according to one source.

Rhyme

Various versions of the song exist; a common version goes; Alternate versions use "15 cents", "never came down" and end with repeating "July, July, July". An alternate version, sung in Canada and England, includes the words: An alternate version, sung in the American South:

Clap

A common version of the accompanying clap is as follows: Another version: Another Version: Another Version: repeat

Possible origins

The origin of the name Mary Mack is obscure, and various theories have been proposed. One theory is that the song originated in Virginia. Miss Mary Mack was a performer in Ephraim Williams’ circus in the 1880s; the song may be reference to her and the elephants in the show. According to another theory, Mary Mack originally referred to the USS Merrimack, a United States warship of the mid-1800s named after the Merrimack River, that would have been black, with silvery rivets. Early mentions of the part about the elephant do not include the part about Mary Mack. The first verse, the repetition, is also a riddle with the answer "coffin".