130 free Happy Birthday trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
60 free happy birthday trivia questions with answers. This happy birthday trivia quiz is built for the party itself: the story of the world's most recognised song and the $14 million copyright settlement that finally freed it, the German count whose 1746 cake had a candle for every year, why 23 people in a room is all it takes for two to share a birthday, and what people born on 29 February call themselves. It then goes round the world: seaweed soup in Korea, longevity noodles in China, a fifteenth-birthday tiara in Mexico, fairy bread in Australia, Trooping the Colour for a monarch whose real birthday is in the wrong season, and a Dutch national holiday that moved because the queen was born in January. Pop culture gets a look in too, from Marilyn Monroe's dress to Bilbo's eleventy-first party. Most questions suit a mixed table of adults and older kids; a handful at the end will stump the birthday nerd. Every answer was checked against a reference page and shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 130 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The tune of 'Happy Birthday to You' was originally published in 1893 as a classroom song called what?
Good Morning to All
Kindergarten teachers Patty and Mildred Hill of Louisville, Kentucky, wanted something small children could sing easily; the birthday words were attached later.
Q 02Per Guinness (1998), which song is the second most recognised in English after 'Happy Birthday to You'?
For He's a Jolly Good Fellow
The birthday song's basic words have been translated into at least 18 languages.
Q 03Which publisher refunded $14 million in 2016 after its copyright claim on 'Happy Birthday to You' was voided?
Warner/Chappell
The 2015 ruling found the registration covered only a piano arrangement, not the words and melody, so the song is now public domain in the US.
Q 04In the European Union, the copyright on 'Happy Birthday to You' expired on the first day of which year?
2017
EU terms run 70 years from the author's death; Patty Hill, the last surviving sister, died in 1946.
Q 05Marilyn Monroe famously sang 'Happy Birthday' to President Kennedy in May 1962 at a gala held where?
Madison Square Garden
It was 10 days before his actual 45th birthday; Kennedy joked he could now retire from politics after being sung to 'in such a sweet, wholesome way'.
Q 06How many rhinestones were sewn into the sheer dress Marilyn Monroe wore to sing to JFK?
2,500
She wore nothing underneath and had to be sewn into it; the dress sold for $4.8 million in 2016 and Kim Kardashian wore it to the 2022 Met Gala.
Q 07Which Canadian billionaire bought Marilyn Monroe's 'Happy Birthday' dress for $4.8 million in 2016?
Jim Pattison
It had already fetched over $1.26 million at a New York auction in 1999, then a record for a dress.
Q 08Stevie Wonder released 'Happy Birthday' in 1981 to campaign for a national holiday honouring whom?
Martin Luther King
It came from the album Hotter than July, and the holiday was signed into law in 1983.
Q 09The Beatles' song 'Birthday' opens the third side of which 1968 double LP?
The White Album
Mostly McCartney's work, it was largely written on the spot in the studio on 18 September 1968; he and Ringo played it for Ringo's 70th at Radio City.
Q 10'In da Club', the go-to birthday party rap track, was the debut single of which artist in 2003?
50 Cent
Produced by Dr. Dre and Mike Elizondo, it became his first Billboard number one and won Best Rap Video at the 2003 VMAs.
Q 11The birthday cake with one candle per year of age is generally traced to 18th-century celebrations where?
Germany
At Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf's 1746 party the cake was 'as large as any oven could be found to bake it', with a candle in each hole and one in the middle.
Q 12One theory says ancient Greeks lit candles on cakes to honour which goddess's birth each lunar month?
Artemis
Round cakes and glowing candles were thought to echo the moon, her symbol; the Romans occasionally served cakes at special birthdays too.
Q 13What was the 18th-century German children's birthday celebration from which candles on cakes are traced?
Kinderfest
Q 21Which food is a traditional Chinese birthday dish, symbolising a long life?
Longevity noodles
Rice wine is another classic gift, because in some dialects the word for it sounds like the word for 'long-lasting'.
Q 22A quinceañera celebrates a girl's birthday at what age?
Fifteen
The girl typically wears a tiara; the tradition blends Spanish Catholic custom with Aztec coming-of-age rites and 19th-century French court fashion.
Q 23Fairy bread, an Australian and New Zealand party staple, is buttered white bread covered in what?
Hundreds and thousands
The first known mention of the name is from the Hobart Mercury in 1929, describing a party for children in a sanatorium.
Goethe described one such candlelit cake at a party in Gotha in August 1801.
Q 14How many people need to be in a room for there to be a better than 50% chance that two share a birthday?
23
It feels wrong because you are not comparing everyone to you, but every pair to each other: 23 people make 253 pairs.
Q 15Someone born on 29 February is commonly nicknamed a what?
Leapling
In ordinary years they celebrate on 28 February or 1 March, and technically they have far fewer birthday anniversaries than years.
Q 16Which Texas town declared itself the 'leap year capital of the world' in 1988?
Anthony
It sits on the New Mexico state line and throws a multi-day festival every four years.
Q 17Which saint, per Irish legend, got St Patrick to let women propose on 29 February?
St Brigid
Patrick supposedly offered one day every seven years; she talked him down to every four, and a refusing man owed gloves, a silk gown or, later, a fur coat.
Q 18Between 1973 and 1999, which date was the most common birthday in the United States?
September 16
Births peak in September and October in the US, and New Zealand shows the same peak, which points to holiday conceptions rather than winter weather.
Q 19What is Korea's traditional first-birthday celebration, where a baby picks an object, called?
Doljanchi
Thread or noodles mean long life, money means wealth and a brush or book means scholarship; Baek-il is the 100-day feast that comes earlier.
Q 20Koreans traditionally eat miyeok-guk, a seaweed soup, on the day they were born, to honour whom?
Their mother
New mothers eat the same soup for months after childbirth, so eating it on your birthday thanks her for having you.
Q 24A traditional Mexican piñata has a certain number of points. What are they said to represent?
The deadly sins
The pot stands for evil and the sweets inside for temptation; the Spanish first used piñatas for evangelism at Acolman in 1586.
Q 25Which annual London ceremony marks the British sovereign's official birthday?
Trooping the Colour
It has marked the official birthday since 1748; Edward VII kept it in early summer because his real birthday was in November.
Q 26The British sovereign's official birthday was first marked in 1748 for which monarch?
George II
Since 1959 the UK observance has been fixed on a Saturday in early June, chosen for the odds of decent weather.
Q 27Why did Queen Beatrix keep the Dutch national holiday on Queen Juliana's date, 30 April, rather than her own?
Hers fell in mid-winter
Beatrix was born on 31 January; the holiday moved again to 27 April when her son Willem-Alexander became king in 2013.
Q 28The North Korean holiday named the Day of the Sun in 1997 celebrates whose birthday?
Kim Il Sung
He was born on 15 April 1912, the same day the Titanic sank; his son's birthday is the Day of the Shining Star.
Q 29Since 1971 the US federal holiday for Washington's Birthday has been observed on which day?
The third Monday of the month
The Uniform Monday Holiday Act created the three-day weekend, which means the holiday can never actually fall on the 22nd.
Q 30In the Torah, the only birthday celebration mentioned is that of whom?
Pharaoh
It appears in Genesis 40:20, and its association with pagan rulers is one reason Jehovah's Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays.