Curtiss Candy Company always insisted Baby Ruth was named after a president's daughter who'd been dead for seventeen years by the time the bar launched — not the baseball player breaking home run records at the same time.
Launched in 1921, right as a slugger became a household name
Baby Ruth arrived in 1921 as a reformulation of an earlier Curtiss bar called Kandy Kake. The timing was awkward: Babe Ruth was in the middle of smashing home run records and becoming one of the most famous names in America, and the resemblance was hard to ignore.
The official story nobody quite believed
Curtiss maintained the bar was named for Ruth Cleveland, born in 1891 to President Grover Cleveland. The problem was timing — she had died of diphtheria in 1904, so by 1921 she'd been gone for seventeen years and was in no position to inspire a new product. Company founder Otto Schnering also admitted he expected Babe Ruth's fame to help sales, which did little to support the official explanation.
Babe Ruth's revenge bar and the lawsuit that followed
Ruth responded by lending his name to a rival called Ruth's Home Run Bar in 1926, with wrappers he signed personally to prove it was genuine. Curtiss Candy Company answered with a trademark infringement lawsuit against him — and won it in 1931, leaving Baby Ruth as the only bar allowed to carry a version of the name.
What's actually in the bar
Baby Ruth is built from layers of nougat, caramel and roasted peanuts, with the peanuts pressed into the outer surface rather than the bar being coated in smooth chocolate — a texture that sets it apart from most European chocolate bars.
Browse more classic imports in our American candy collection.
Frequently asked questions
Is Baby Ruth named after Babe Ruth?
Officially, no — the Curtiss Candy Company said it was named after Ruth Cleveland, President Grover Cleveland's daughter, even though she had died in 1904, seventeen years before the bar launched in 1921.
What's inside a Baby Ruth bar?
Layers of nougat, caramel and roasted peanuts, without a smooth chocolate coating — the peanuts are pressed directly into the surface.
What happened when Babe Ruth tried to make his own candy bar?
He backed a rival bar called Ruth's Home Run Bar in 1926, and Curtiss Candy Company sued for trademark infringement — a case Curtiss won in 1931.