New Jersey Trivia
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117 free New Jersey trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
65 free New Jersey trivia questions with answers. New Jersey trivia for anyone who has ever defended the state to an out-of-towner. This quiz covers the whole place: the Channel Island it is named for, the two English lords who first owned it, the winter Washington crossed the Delaware, the third-state ratification of the Constitution, and the wizard of Menlo Park who lit the first street in the world. It also covers what makes Jersey Jersey: more diners than anywhere on Earth, the full-service gas rule, the Taylor ham and pork roll divide, Atlantic City's boardwalk and Monopoly streets, the Hindenburg at Lakehurst, the first baseball game and first drive-in, the Jersey Devil, Springsteen, Sinatra and Bon Jovi, the Sopranos, the Meadowlands, and a whole roster of state firsts and symbols. A dedicated Jersey City trivia round covers Pavonia and Bergen, the Battle of Paulus Hook, Hamilton's Jersey Company, Boss Hague, the Colgate Clock, Liberty State Park, Wall Street West and the city motto. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is marked on every question. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 117 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01New Jersey takes its name from a place in which body of water?
The English Channel
The English Channel: the colony was named for Jersey, the Channel Island whose former governor, Sir George Carteret, received the land from the Duke of York in 1664.
Q 02What is New Jersey's state capital?
Trenton
Trenton, on the Delaware River, has been New Jersey's capital since 1790 and briefly served as the national capital when Congress met there in late 1784.
Q 03New Jersey holds which population distinction among US states?
Most densely populated
Most densely populated: the 2020 census counted about 9.29 million people in the fifth-smallest state by land area, roughly 1,260 residents per square mile.
Q 04New Jersey ratified the US Constitution on December 18, 1787, making it which state to do so?
Third
Third: Delaware (December 7) and Pennsylvania (December 12) ratified first, and New Jersey followed unanimously on December 18, 1787; it was also first to ratify the Bill of Rights in November 1789.
Q 05Which Indigenous people were dominant in the region when Europeans arrived in the 17th century?
The Lenape
The Lenape (Delaware) people lived throughout the region; Dutch and Swedish colonists founded the first European settlements before the English took control in 1664.
Q 06Which troops did Washington's army surprise after crossing the Delaware on the night of December 25-26, 1776?
Hessians
Hessians: German auxiliaries under Colonel Johann Rall garrisoned Trenton and were routed on December 26, 1776, with Rall mortally wounded and about 900 captured.
Q 07Because of its many Revolutionary War battles, New Jersey earned what title?
Crossroads of the Revolution
Crossroads of the Revolution: Washington's army fought at Trenton, Princeton and Monmouth (June 1778) in New Jersey and wintered twice at Morristown.
Q 08Edison perfected his incandescent light bulb in 1879 at his laboratory in which New Jersey community?
Menlo Park
Menlo Park: Edison's laboratory there produced a practical carbon-filament bulb in October 1879, lit Christie Street with incandescent lamps in 1880, and he went on to 1,093 US patents.
Q 09Which of these inventions did NOT originate in New Jersey?
The telephone
The telephone was patented by Alexander Graham Bell in Boston in 1876; New Jersey claims the phonograph (1877), the transistor (1947) and the first drive-in theater (1933).
Q 10The first drive-in movie theater opened on June 6, 1933, near which city on the Delaware?
Camden
Richard Hollingshead's patented drive-in stood on Admiral Wilson Boulevard in Pennsauken Township, just outside Camden.
Q 11The first organised baseball game under Knickerbocker rules was played in 1846 at the Elysian Fields in which city?
Hoboken
Hoboken: at the Elysian Fields on June 19, 1846, the Knickerbockers lost 23-1 to the New York Nine in the first recorded game under Knickerbocker rules.
Q 12Rutgers played the first intercollegiate football game in 1869 against which college?
Princeton
Princeton: on November 6, 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton 6-4 in New Brunswick, with the Rutgers players wearing scarlet turbans and handkerchiefs to tell the sides apart.
Q 13Rutgers, chartered in 1766, was originally known by what name?
Queen's College
Q 21The Jersey Shore's first boardwalk, built in 1870, was intended to solve what problem?
Sand being tracked into hotel lobbies
Sand being tracked into hotel lobbies: Atlantic City's 1870 boardwalk was laid to keep sand out of hotels and railroad cars, and its planks were taken up at the end of every season.
Q 22The first Miss America Pageant was held on the boardwalk in which year?
1921
1921: the first Miss America pageant, won by 16-year-old Margaret Gorman of Washington DC, was staged on the Atlantic City boardwalk in September 1921 to stretch the summer season.
Q 23The US edition of Monopoly takes its street names from which shore resort?
Atlantic City
Queen's College, named for George III's queen Charlotte, was chartered in 1766 under the Dutch Reformed Church and renamed Rutgers in 1825 after benefactor Henry Rutgers.
Q 14Nassau Hall at the state's Ivy League college served as the US capital for four months in which year?
1783
1783: the Continental Congress sat in Nassau Hall from June to November 1783 and learned there that the Treaty of Paris had been signed; the college was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey.
Q 15Which Caldwell, New Jersey-born president was the first to serve non-consecutive terms?
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland, born in Caldwell in 1837, served as the 22nd president from 1885 to 1889 and the 24th from 1893 to 1897.
Q 16New Jersey is famous for having more of which eatery than anywhere else in the world?
Diners
Diners: New Jersey has roughly 500-600 of them, earning the nickname 'Diner Capital of the World', and builders such as Kullman Industries manufactured diners in the state.
Q 17New Jersey law requires every gas station to do what for customers?
Pump the gas for you
Pump the gas for you: New Jersey has banned self-service fuelling under its Retail Gasoline Dispensing Safety Act since 1949, and became the only state with a statewide ban after Oregon allowed self-service in 2023.
Q 18Under what brand name was the state's famous pork roll sold until food labelling rules changed in 1906?
Taylor's Prepared Ham
Taylor's Prepared Ham: John Taylor of Trenton created it in 1856, and the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act forced a rename to Taylor's Pork Roll, seeding the north-south 'Taylor ham' versus 'pork roll' argument.
Q 19Which fruit did New Jersey designate as its official state fruit in 2004?
Blueberries
Blueberries: the highbush blueberry became the state fruit in 2004, honouring Whitesbog, where Elizabeth White and Frederick Coville first cultivated blueberries commercially in 1916.
Q 20New Jersey is the only one of the fifty never to have had what?
An official song
An official song: New Jersey is the only state without one; Red Mascara's 'I'm From New Jersey' passed the legislature in 1972 but Governor William Cahill never signed it.
Atlantic City: Boardwalk, Park Place and Baltic Avenue are its real streets, and 'Marvin Gardens' misspells nearby Marven Gardens, an error copied from the couple who taught Charles Darrow the game.
Q 24In which year did New Jersey voters legalise casino gambling in the state's boardwalk resort?
1976
1976: after a 1974 statewide-casino referendum failed, voters approved Atlantic City-only casinos in November 1976, and Resorts International opened the first one in May 1978.
Q 25Which South Jersey town, with a National Historic Landmark Victorian downtown, is America's oldest seaside resort?
Cape May
Cape May: its Victorian district became a National Historic Landmark in 1976, and Congress Hall, first built in 1816, made the town a favourite escape for Philadelphians.
Q 26The Hindenburg burst into flames in 1937 while landing at a naval air station in which New Jersey town?
Lakehurst
Lakehurst: the airship burned at Naval Air Station Lakehurst on May 6, 1937, killing 36; radio reporter Herbert Morrison's 'Oh, the humanity!' was recorded on the landing field.
Q 27Orson Welles' 1938 War of the Worlds broadcast placed the Martian landing in which New Jersey hamlet?
Grover's Mill
Grover's Mill, in West Windsor Township, is where the Mercury Theatre's October 30, 1938 broadcast landed the first Martian cylinder; the panic it reportedly caused was later shown to be exaggerated.
Q 28In which year was the Jersey Devil, the cursed thirteenth Leeds child, said to be born?
1735
1735: legend has Mother Leeds cursing her thirteenth child, born in the Pine Barrens that year, which became the winged Jersey Devil; the NHL's Devils took the name in 1982.
Q 29The New Jersey Devils began life in 1974 as which team?
The Kansas City Scouts
The Kansas City Scouts joined the NHL in 1974, moved to Denver as the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and became the New Jersey Devils in 1982.
Q 30MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford is home to which two NFL teams?
The New York Giants and New York Jets
The New York Giants and New York Jets have shared MetLife Stadium since it opened in 2010 at a cost of about $1.6 billion; it hosted Super Bowl XLVIII in February 2014 and 2026 World Cup matches.