The cocktail's origin goes back to the 1937 British Industries Fair, but it gained widespread popularity in the 1950s after being endorsed by New York's 21 Club.

[1] Variations of the drink can be made using any aged spirit with the Drambuie (its one essential ingredient),[2] although using blended Scotch whisky in a 1 to 1 or 2 to 1 ratio is traditional.

[7] Other variations include: According to cocktail historian David Wondrich, "...the Rusty Nail took a while to find its proper place in the world".

The combination of Drambuie—"the world's most distinguished Scotch-based liqueur"—and the whisky it is made from first appears in 1937 in the form of the B.I.F., credited to one F. Benniman and ostensibly named after the British Industries Fair.

"[4] The cocktail authority Dale DeGroff said "the Rusty Nail is often credited to the clever bartenders at the 21 Club in Manhattan sometime in the early 1960s"[2][3] The cocktail's name was finally cemented in 1963, when Gina MacKinnon, the chairwoman of the Drambuie Liqueur Company, gave the rusty nail her endorsement in The New York Times.