The saying is Barnum’s: newspapers in August 1888 reported him telling a woman who said she was writing a critical book about him to “say anything you like about me, but spell my name right.” The tighter Babe Ruth wording — “Say anything you want. Just spell my name right” — first appears in a Tampa Morning Tribune column of 12 March 1932, per Quote Investigator ↗ — framed as an imagined Q&A, not a real interview.
“Say anything you like about me, but spell my name right — P. T. B-a-r-n-u-m, P. T. Barnum — and I'll be pleased anyway.” P. T. Barnum, reported in U.S. newspapers, August 1888. The popular clipping "Say anything you want. Just spell my name right" is the later, disputed form: it comes from a 12 March 1932 Tampa Morning Tribune column's imagined interview with Babe Ruth, not from Ruth himself. Via quotle.info
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Babe Ruth. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of P. T. Barnum — American showman, businessman & circus founder. Theme: "Say anything you want. Just spell my name right". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Minimalist
Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Say anything you want. Just spell my name right". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Where the wording actually comes from
Saying first documented
The Evening News (Franklin, Pennsylvania), 8 August 1888
Spoken by
P. T. Barnum, replying to a woman who told him she was writing a critical book about him (that fuller account — “Barnum and the Blackmailer” — runs in The St Johnsbury Caledonian, 9 August 1888)
This exact wording
Tampa Morning Tribune, 12 March 1932 — Red Newton’s column
Ruth’s role
Character in a columnist’s imagined Q&A; no documented first-hand utterance
say anything you like about me, but spell my name right — P. T. B-a-r-n-u-m, P. T. Barnum — and I’ll be pleased anyway
Reported speech, 1888
That is the 1888 Barnum report, the earliest strong match Quote Investigator located. The compressed Babe Ruth form — “Say anything you want. Just spell my name right” — appears 44 years later in the Tampa Morning Tribune of 12 March 1932, inside a humorous mock dispatch, with a variant from the same columnist on 18 March 1932: “Print anything about me you want to, just spell my name right.”
August 1888 — The earliest strong match: U.S. newspapers including The Evening News of Franklin, Pennsylvania (8 August) and The St Johnsbury Caledonian of Vermont (9 August) report Barnum’s reply to a would-be critic, per Quote Investigator ↗.
1930–1931 — The saying is circulating in sports pages: a Hackensack, New Jersey column in November 1930 and boxer Max Schmeling in January 1931 both use versions, as documented by QI ↗.
March 1932 — Only now does Babe Ruth appear — in Red Newton’s Tampa Morning Tribune column, in an invented interview. The line is absent from Wikiquote’s Babe Ruth page ↗ entirely.
Two different documents are in play. The 1888 newspaper report of Barnum’s remark, excerpted above, was published well before 1931 and is public domain in the United States. The exact wording this page asks about, however, first appears in a 1932 newspaper column — after the 1931 line — so we treat that text conservatively as in-copyright, since we have not confirmed its renewal status. Short quotation for commentary and identification is a separate question from ownership.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
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Fact-check
Who else gets the credit
This is one of the most widely shared lines in show business, and almost everyone quotable has been handed it at some point. The claimants below are the recurring ones.
✕
the exact wording on this pageBabe Ruth Popular claim
assorted paraphrasesMae West, W. C. Fields, Will Rogers, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde Quote-magnet drift
All are listed among the claimants in Quote/Counterquote’s survey of the saying ↗, alongside “several prominent politicians” — the standard signature of a floating quotation.
✓
a 1931 spoken variantMax Schmeling Real, but not the origin
✓Quote Investigator’s verdict ↗: P. T. Barnum deserves credit for the saying on the strength of the 1888 citations; Ruth, Schmeling, West and the rest were later users of a line already in circulation.
Context
Why the line keeps changing owners
Every version of this saying does the same job: it converts criticism into publicity. That is why it migrates so easily. A showman, a Broadway producer, a boxer, a movie star and a ballplayer can all deliver it and have it sound in character — which is precisely the condition under which quotations drift.
Quote Investigator’s citation trail shows the drift happening in real time: an 1888 Barnum anecdote, boxing promoter James J. Johnston in a 1915 Damon Runyon column, a 1930 New Jersey sports item, boxer Max Schmeling in 1931, and only then Babe Ruth in 1932 — each speaker inheriting a line already in circulation.
The sentiment is Barnum’s. Ruth is just the most quotable person it was ever handed to.
The 1932 Ruth citation, in detail
Quote Investigator dates the exact wording to Red Newton’s column in the Tampa Morning Tribune of 12 March 1932, presented in a mock dispatch (“Private operative L2 reports from St. Petersburg”) with question-and-answer formatting — a humorous framing rather than a transcribed interview. The same columnist ran a variant on 18 March 1932: “Print anything about me you want to, just spell my name right.”
So even the earliest Ruth appearance is a columnist’s construction. That does not prove Ruth never said something similar in conversation — only that no documented instance from his own mouth has been produced, and that the idea was already forty-odd years old when it reached him.
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1810–1891 · American showman, businessman & circus founder
Phineas Taylor Barnum (5 July 1810 – 7 April 1891) was an American showman, businessman and politician, remembered for his museum of curiosities, his talent for publicity, and for founding the circus that became Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey. He built a career on the premise that attention itself was the asset — which is exactly the logic of this line. He is also the magnet for sayings he did not coin: Wikipedia notes there is no evidence he originated “there’s a sucker born every minute.”
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Cite this page
“Quote Origin: Say Anything You Like About Me, But Spell My Name Right,” Quote Investigator, 20 January 2020, citing The Evening News (Franklin, Pennsylvania), 8 August 1888, and Red Newton’s column in the Tampa Morning Tribune, 12 March 1932.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Say anything you want. Just spell my name right’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/say-anything-you-want-just-spell-my-name-right/