Charlotte Trivia
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50 free Charlotte trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
43 free Charlotte trivia questions with answers. Charlotte, North Carolina grew from a crossroads of two Native American trading paths into the second-largest banking centre in the United States, and this quiz covers the whole arc: the German-born queen it is named for, the British general who called it a hornet's nest, the 12-year-old whose gold nugget became a doorstop and started America's first gold rush, and the banker who turned NCNB into Bank of America. You will also find the Panthers, Hornets, Charlotte FC and Checkers, the NASCAR industry that surrounds the city, Carowinds and its painted state line, the Whitewater Center, the Lynx Blue Line, and hometown names from Billy Graham and Randolph Scott to Ric Flair and Stephen Curry's Davidson. Questions run from easy ones any newcomer will get to details that only a longtime Charlottean will know, so it works for a trivia night in NoDa, a company icebreaker or a welcome-to-town quiz. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and reference sources, and each question shows an explanation and its citation once you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Queen City is named after the wife of which British king?
George III
Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz married George III in 1761; the city carries her name and Mecklenburg County the name of her German homeland.
Q 02Charlotte's other historic nickname, the Hornet's Nest, comes from a remark by which British commander?
General Cornwallis
He occupied the town during the Revolutionary War, was driven out, and wrote that it was 'a hornet's nest of rebellion'.
Q 03In what year was the Town of Charlotte incorporated?
1768
Charlotte was incorporated in 1768 by North Carolina's colonial assembly as a small courthouse town at the crossing of two Native American trading paths.
Q 04Uptown's central intersection, known as The Square, is where Trade meets which other thoroughfare?
Tryon
Tryon follows the old Great Wagon Road and is named for a colonial royal governor; the crossing is formally Independence Square.
Q 05On which date was the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence supposedly signed?
May 20, 1775
The text was not published until 1819 and historians still dispute whether it existed; May 20 is celebrated as Meck Dec Day.
Q 06What was the 17-pound rock a Cabarrus County boy found in 1799 that his family used as a doorstop?
Nearly solid gold
A jeweller paid the Reed family $3.50 for it, and the find set off the first gold rush in the United States.
Q 07The gold-coin facility that opened in Charlotte in 1837 holds what distinction in US history?
The first US branch mint
The Charlotte Mint, which struck its first gold coins in 1838, was the first US branch mint; seized by the Confederacy in 1861, it never coined again, and the relocated building became the Mint Museum in 1936.
Q 08Measured by assets, Charlotte is the second-largest banking headquarters in the US after where?
New York
Only New York outranks Charlotte in bank assets headquartered there: Bank of America has been based in the city since its 1998 merger with NationsBank, and Truist since its formation in 2019.
Q 09Which financier built North Carolina National Bank into what became Bank of America?
Hugh McColl
Hugh McColl ran NCNB from 1983, turned it into NationsBank, and bought BankAmerica for about $62 billion in 1998, keeping the Bank of America name.
Q 10Charlotte-based First Union, later renamed Wachovia, was bought in 2008 by which bank?
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo agreed to buy Wachovia in October 2008 for about $15 billion, outbidding a Citigroup rescue deal, and kept a major East Coast hub in Charlotte.
Q 11Which company announced in November 2018 that it was moving its headquarters to Charlotte?
Honeywell
Honeywell announced in November 2018 that it would move its headquarters from New Jersey to Charlotte, joining Fortune 500 names such as Bank of America, Duke Energy and Nucor.
Q 12The Carolina Panthers began play in which year?
1995
The Panthers played their first season in 1995 at Clemson's Memorial Stadium in South Carolina while their Charlotte stadium was being built.
Q 13What happened in the Panthers' Super Bowl appearances after the 2003 and 2015 seasons?
They lost both
They lost both: New England beat Carolina 32-29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII, and Denver beat the 15-1 Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 despite Cam Newton's MVP season.
Q 21Roughly what share of NASCAR's race teams, employees and drivers are based in the Charlotte area?
About 75 percent
About 75 percent of NASCAR teams and their employees are based around Charlotte; nearby Mooresville is nicknamed Race City USA, and Uptown hosts the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
Q 22Charlotte Motor Speedway is actually located in which neighbouring city?
Concord
The speedway sits in Concord, in Cabarrus County; the 1.5-mile quad-oval opened in 1960 and was called Lowe's Motor Speedway from 1999 to 2009.
Q 23The NASCAR Hall of Fame in Uptown Charlotte opened in which year?
2010
The NASCAR Hall of Fame opened in Uptown in May 2010; its exhibits include the Plymouth Belvedere Richard Petty drove to 27 wins in 1967.
Q 14When the Panthers' Uptown home opened in 1996, what was it called?
Ericsson Stadium
Swedish telecom Ericsson held the first naming rights from 1996 to 2004; the roughly 75,000-seat venue later became Bank of America Stadium and also hosts Charlotte FC.
Q 15The original Charlotte Hornets NBA team, founded in 1988, relocated in 2002 to which city?
New Orleans
The city got the Bobcats in 2004, and they took back the Hornets name and history in 2014 once the New Orleans team became the Pelicans.
Q 16The 1988 Hornets set off a sports fashion craze by choosing which primary colour?
Teal
Designer Alexander Julian gave the 1988 Hornets teal uniforms with the NBA's first pinstripes, and teal swept sports merchandise in the early 1990s.
Q 17Which basketball legend led the group that bought a majority share of Charlotte's NBA team in 2010?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan, raised in Wilmington, North Carolina, bought a minority stake in the Bobcats in 2006, became majority owner in 2010 and sold his majority share in 2023.
Q 18Why was Charlotte FC's 74,479 home-debut crowd in March 2022 notable?
Biggest MLS single-match attendance to that date
The 74,479 who watched a 1-0 loss to the LA Galaxy were the biggest MLS single-match attendance to that date; Charlotte averaged 35,260 in 2022, second only to Atlanta.
Q 19The Charlotte Knights, who play at Truist Field in Uptown, are the Triple-A affiliate of which MLB team?
Chicago White Sox
The Knights have been the Chicago White Sox's Triple-A affiliate since 1999; their Uptown ballpark opened in 2014 as BB&T Ballpark and was renamed Truist Field in 2020.
Q 20The Charlotte Checkers hockey team plays in which league?
AHL
The Checkers joined the American Hockey League (AHL) in 2010 and won the league's Calder Cup in 2019.
Q 24Charlotte Douglas International Airport is a fortress hub for which airline?
American Airlines
American Airlines runs one of its largest hubs at Charlotte Douglas, a role inherited from US Airways in their 2013 merger; the terminal is known for its white rocking chairs.
Q 25The Lynx Blue Line, which opened in 2007, was which milestone for North Carolina?
Its first major rapid rail service
The first phase ran from I-485 up South Boulevard to 7th Street and was later extended to UNC Charlotte.
Q 26The Carowinds amusement park is unusual because what runs straight through its main entrance area?
The state line
The North Carolina-South Carolina state line runs through Carowinds, which opened in 1973 with part of the park in Fort Mill, South Carolina; the merged Six Flags picked Charlotte as its headquarters in 2024.
Q 27The U.S. National Whitewater Center in Mecklenburg County claims what record?
Largest recirculating artificial rapids river
The center, opened in 2006, bills its channels as the world's largest recirculating artificial rapids river, including an Olympic-standard slalom course.
Q 28Lake Norman, northwest of Charlotte, was created by Duke Energy building which dam?
Cowans Ford Dam
Cowans Ford Dam, completed by Duke Power in 1963, impounds Lake Norman, North Carolina's largest man-made lake, named for former Duke Power president Norman Cocke.
Q 29Which world-famous evangelist was born on a dairy farm in Charlotte in 1918?
Billy Graham
The city is home to his library and to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Q 30The 11th US president, born in a log cabin in Pineville just south of Charlotte, was who?
James K. Polk
James K. Polk, the 11th president, was born in 1795 near Pineville in Mecklenburg County; his great-uncle Thomas Polk was among Charlotte's founding settlers.