The contemporary version generally goes as follows:[2] There was a farmer had a dog, And Bingo was his name-o.
Though the first line is ungrammatical in standard English, using an apo koinou construction, it is nearly always sung with the lyrics as stated.
The identity of Bingo is formally ambiguous, and it is occasionally suggested that it is the name of the farmer.
[4][5] Early versions of the song were variously titled "The Farmer's Dog Leapt o'er the Stile", "A Franklyn's Dogge", or "Little Bingo".
An early transcription of the song (without a title) dates from the 1785 songbook "The Humming Bird",[6] and reads: This is how most people know the traditional children's song: The farmer's dog leapt over the stile, his name was little Bingo, the farmer's dog leapt over the stile, his name was little Bingo.
Highly-differing versions were recorded in Monton, Shropshire, Liphook and Wakefield, Staffordshire, Nottinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire and Enborne.
[11] Variations on the lyrics refer to the dog variously as belonging to a miller or a shepherd, and/or named "Bango" or "Pinto".
In some variants, variations on the following third stanza are added: The farmer loved a pretty young lass, and gave her a wedding-ring-o.
Under the title "Little Bingo", a variation on the early version was recorded twice by folk singer Alan Mills, on Animals, Vol.