I would think that, children's language being normally very conservative in such matters and largely ignored by adults, that there could easily be a provenance af much greater age than the first recorded use. That it doesn't seem to match British usage would seem to argue against an origin in a British children's game, however. Do we have any citations from those of us from outside of North America?

here's something else that may (or may not) be related:

A term used in various senses in the game of marbles (see quots.).

1823 E. MOOR Suffolk Words s.v., A player knocking two out of the ring cries ‘dubs!’ to authorize his claim to both. 1882 M. H. FOOTE Led-Horse Claim iv. 62 ‘What is it the boys say when they play marbles?’..‘Fend dubs?’ Hilgard suggested. 1896 Dialect Notes I. 220 In Missouri..dubs means, not doublets, but that the player has blundered, and by crying ‘dubs’ is entitled to play again.

I remember that "dibs" was used in marbles game, but can't remember how it was used.
I ;haven't seen kids play marbles, tops, of mumbledy peg for seventy years.

re:haven't seen kids play marbles, tops, of mumbledy peg for seventy years.

my kids had tops, but didn't play "war" with their tops they way boys did when i was young..

marble are still sold.. (and i have a lovely collection of marbles, including some aggies, all "street finds" --the last one added just a week or two ago..)

kids lives are more controled, and they are less likely to entertain themselves (i don't consider a video game that some one else developed to be self entertainment..)

but kids are kids.. in HS- my son was involved in long term (it went on for weeks) game of hi-tech tag... they used a small plastic (brightly colored) gun, that shot plastic disks about the size of a US nickel..different colors on different days had differing point values (the gun selected the ammo, randomly!) i never knew all the rules, but about 20% of the school kids got involved (eventually, the school administration cracked down, to many plastic disks, and a fear of someone getting their eye shot out...)

and my kids would call dibs, to 'ride shotgun' or to the last piece of candy, or to other silly stuff..as i did, as a child... every parent knows the term.. kids learn it from each other.

Playing ‘war’ with tops was a new idea to me until my 6 year old grandson introduced me to Beyblades. It seems to have come back in fashion with a bang, from Japan, and tied into a TV programme. We didn’t fight with tops when I was young, or at least, ‘my lot’ didn’t. Here’s a site about Beyblades, there are many others.

http://www.popularcollections.com/beyblades.html

There is also Dibs the hero of a wonderful account by Virginia Axline about the treatment of a brilliant but disturbed little boy with that name. I never did stop to consider where his name came from. Perhaps she made it up out of whole cloth. Anyone with an opinion on that one?

assuming any else read the book: ca 1960, I believe

Edit: 1964, to be precise. See
http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/axline803-des-.html
for a brief description.

I've used and heard dibs at school, but in the UK at least, the term usually used is bagsied or bags. e.g: "I bags the last chocolate." Though the origin of this is probably more straight forward - as in grabbing/bagging something.

Quinion also uses the term "get his hands ... on the dibs". Dibs is also an old term for money, Georgin era I think, as in "the dibs are in tune" for having money.

How's that again?

A compelling example of deconstructionist mediocrity?

A compelling example of vacuuous rhetoric?

a minimalist reply
a placeholder, keeping dibs on the spot

but most likely, just a slip of the finger, and will be the subject of minor embarrassment when WM logs on next time and finds the tempest in a teapot started by an inadvertent hit-the-wrong-key-by-mistake-darn-it-now-I-have-to reconstruct-the-whole-silly-message glitch. Not to worry, WM, happens to all of us every now and then.

>a minimalist reply
>a placeholder, keeping dibs on the spot

knowing wordminstrel (as I don't) I'm thinking this could well be the actual answer..
-joe (his dibs) friday

Dear Tsuwm: In dis spot, if in no other, I am "his dibs".

Dis who may, none can dibs me away.

In dis spot, if in no other, I am "his dibs". And here I'd been thinking you were his nibs! ;-)

wofa, I got out my copy of "Dibs"; nowhere does it say where the name Dibs came from. In the story, both his mother and his teachers were calling him that before Ms. Axline met him. But there is so much emphasis on protecting the clients' privacy that I suspect she gave him the name. This was the first printing, 1968: the book cost seventy-five cents!

>dibs vs bags

In my childhood both were used interchangeably, now that I (outwardly) appear to be grown-up, dibs is the verb I both hear and use more often.

Ah! Another person cleverly disguised as a responsible adult