Ring a Ring a Roses is English in origin and has been modified like chinese whispers around the worlds and appears in many different forms.

It's important to remember that in Victorian England and back to medieval times death and high mortality was a fact of life for children and so many phrases, poems and tales would have had an unsavoury origin. The rhyme would have travelled to the USA with early settlers and evolved.

Many English phrases have unpleasant origins. 'No room to swing a cat'(of 9 tails), 'one for the road'(to Tyburn),'sweet fanny adams' are good examples. Many English rhymes also have less savoury origins too.