Bitcoin was the first crypto currency to get big adoption. Ripple actually existed years before bitcoin, but never got wide adoption, and it had a different code base to the modern ripple. After bitcoin gained widespread adoption someone paid a programmer to change the ripple code to what is used today, after which it started to get more users.
It doesn't matter which crypto currency was technically the first, it only matters which was the first to get widespread adoption, and bitcoin did that.
Chancoin was searched for first. Bitcoin came second.