 Jack is the most common name used in English language nursery rhymes and by the 18th century represented an archetypal Everyman hero , while by the end of the Middle Ages Jill or Gill had come to mean a young girl or a sweetheart . However , the woodcut that accompanied the first recorded version of the rhyme showed two boys ( not a boy and a girl ) , and used the spelling Gill not Jill . This earliest printed version comes from a reprint of John Newbery 's Mother Goose 's Melody , thought to have been first published in London around 1765 . The rhyming of " water " with " after " , was taken by Iona and Peter Opie to suggest that the first verse may date from the first half of the 17th century . 
 Jack <a href='drop_aux' title='1'><mark>is</mark></a>the most common name used in English language nursery rhymes and by the 18th century represented an archetypal Everyman hero , while by the end of the Middle Ages Jill or Gill <a href='been_done' title='2'><mark>had</mark></a> come to mean a young girl or a sweetheart . However , the woodcut <a href='null_relcl' title='3'><mark>that</mark></a>accompanied the first recorded version of the rhyme showed two boys ( not a boy and a girl ) , and used the spelling Gill not Jill . This earliest printed version <a href='uninflect' title='4'><mark>comes</mark></a> from a reprint of John Newbery <a href='null_genetive' title='5'><mark>'s</mark></a>Mother Goose <a href='null_genetive' title='6'><mark>'s</mark></a>Melody , thought to <a href='been_done' title='7'><mark>have</mark></a> been first published in London around 1765 . The rhyming of " water " with " after " , was taken by Iona and Peter Opie to suggest that the first verse may date from the first half of the 17th century . 
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