"Peter Piper" is a well-known alliteration tongue twister and English-language nursery rhyme. The Roud Folk Song Index number for this song is 19745. It has been suggested that the name "Peter Piper" comes from an early 17th-century spelling of the Latin word petrus, meaning "rock". This interpretation was first published in 1813 by John Newbery in A Collection of Old English Songs. However, the first publication to suggest this explanation was in 1838 by Alexander Henry Bell in his book English Folk Names: Their Origin and Meaning. Bell based his explanation on a note in Thomas Dekker's 1602 play The Honest Whore 3 which reads "P.S. Petrus Stellio (a rock)." However, this note is in reference to a character named Pippin who is using the word "petrus" as a noun rather than a verb like in the song. It is also possible that Dekker intended the name to be read as a tongue twister. A more recent suggestion comes from Eric Partridge in his book A Dictionary of Rhyming Words where he quotes William Barnes as saying "The origin of the name is probably due to its sound. It is formed by combining two words 'Peter' and 'Piper'.