Famous Nicknames
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50 free Famous Nicknames trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
A nickname is a tiny biography. Some start as insults that their targets decide to wear with pride, some come from a childhood pet or a little sister who could not pronounce a word, and some are simply what a sportswriter typed on deadline. The ones that last tell you what people saw in a person or a place. This quiz covers the nicknames most of us know without knowing why: the Big Apple and the Windy City, the Iron Lady and the Sun King, the Boss, the Fab Four, the Desert Fox and the Sultan of Swat. You get the nickname and a clue, and you name who or what it belongs to. Every answer comes with the story of where the name came from. It is written for anyone who likes general knowledge: pub quiz regulars, families, teachers looking for a warm-up round, and trivia teams hunting for a name of their own. The funny ones are in here too, from a lineman named after a kitchen appliance to an Olympian who finished last and became a household name.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which astronaut's nickname began as a sister's attempt to say 'brother' and became his legal name?
Buzz Aldrin
Buzz Aldrin got the name when his sister Fay pronounced 'brother' as 'buzzer', which the family shortened. The second person to walk on the Moon made it his legal first name in 1988.
Q 02Which US city was dubbed the Big Apple in a 1920s sportswriter's horse-racing columns?
New York
New York got the name from John J. Fitz Gerald of the Morning Telegraph, who reportedly heard stable hands call its racetracks 'the big apple'.
Q 03Which politician was first dubbed the Iron Lady by a Soviet army newspaper after a 1976 speech?
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher embraced the insult within a week. The Red Star paper meant it as a jab at her hard line on Moscow, and she repeated it proudly to her own party in Finchley.
Q 04Which Western star got the nickname Duke as a boy from his Airedale terrier of the same name?
John Wayne
John Wayne walked to school with his dog Duke, so a local fireman began calling the boy 'Little Duke'. He preferred the nickname to his given first name and kept it for life.
Q 05Big Ben is strictly the nickname of which part of the clock tower at London's Palace of Westminster?
The great bell
The great bell is the real Big Ben, a 13.5-ton giant named either for Sir Benjamin Hall, who oversaw its installation, or for the boxer Ben Caunt. The tower only borrowed the name.
Q 06Which American rocker became the Boss by collecting his band's nightly pay and sharing it out?
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen handled the money in his early bands, paying each bandmate after the show. Another story traces the name to Monopoly games he played with other Jersey Shore musicians.
Q 07Which former child star of a Motown family group became known worldwide as the King of Pop?
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson's publicists embraced the title in the late 1980s, around the time a film legend handed him a Soul Train award as 'the true king of pop, rock and soul'.
Q 08Which wrestler turned film star debuted as Rocky Maivia before trimming his ring name to the Rock?
Dwayne Johnson
Dwayne Johnson's first ring name combined those of two wrestlers in his family: his father, Rocky Johnson, and his grandfather, Peter Maivia.
Q 09Which city on Lake Michigan is known as the Windy City, a name spread by rivals in Cincinnati?
Chicago
Chicago was first widely labelled the Windy City in 1876, after it overtook its Ohio rival in the meatpacking trade. Lake breezes and long-winded politicians are the other suspects.
Q 10Which band became the Fab Four after press officer Tony Barrow wrote of a 'fabulous foursome'?
The Beatles
The Beatles got the phrase from Barrow's sleeve notes for an album, and the media shortened it as Beatlemania took hold.
Q 11Which European capital is called the City of Light, mainly for its role in the Enlightenment?
Paris
Paris is 'la Ville Lumière' to the French, a title it earned in the 18th century as a centre of education and the sciences.
Q 12Which slugger, whose sale by the Boston Red Sox was blamed for a curse, was the Sultan of Swat?
Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth was also 'the Bambino', and his sale was followed by an 86-year championship drought in Boston that fans named the Curse of the Bambino.
Q 13Which singer of 'Respect' was first crowned the Queen of Soul on stage by a radio DJ in the 1960s?
Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin got the title when radio personality Pervis Spann announced during a theatre show that she should be crowned. Rolling Stone later twice named her the greatest singer of all time.
Q 21Which capital was first called the Eternal City by the poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC?
Rome
Rome was 'Urbs Aeterna' to Tibullus, and Ovid, Virgil and Livy all took up the phrase. Its other well-known title, the City of Seven Hills, comes from its geography.
Q 22Which Louisiana city is the Big Easy, possibly for how easily musicians once found work there?
New Orleans
New Orleans is also the Crescent City, a name that alludes to the curving course of the Lower Mississippi River around and through it.
Q 23Which country is called the Land of the Rising Sun because its name means 'sun origin'?
Japan
Japan is written 日本 and pronounced Nihon or Nippon. The older reading, Nippon, is favoured for official uses such as banknotes and postage stamps.
Q 14Which country star of 'Ring of Fire' was called the Man in Black for his all-dark stage wardrobe?
Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash said he wore all black on behalf of the poor and hungry and the 'prisoner who has long paid for his crime'. He even recorded a song explaining the choice.
Q 15Which US president was called the Gipper after playing dying football star George Gipp on screen?
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan played Gipp in Knute Rockne, All American, and reporters revived the name four decades later while he campaigned for the White House.
Q 16Which island was first called the Emerald Isle in a 1795 poem by the physician William Drennan?
Ireland
Ireland appears as the 'Emerald Isle' in Drennan's When Erin First Rose. The lush vegetation behind the image is the product of a mild climate and frequent rainfall.
Q 17Which singer, once billed as the Hillbilly Cat, was later crowned the King of Rock and Roll?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was also sold as 'The King of Western Bop' and 'The Memphis Flash' in his first years on the road, before the grander title took over.
Q 18Who became the Lady with the Lamp after her night rounds among wounded Crimean War soldiers?
Florence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale got the image from a report in The Times, which pictured her making her solitary rounds 'with a little lamp in her hand' once the medical officers had retired.
Q 19Which heavyweight champion was dubbed the Louisville Lip for trash talk he delivered in rhyme?
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali modelled his boasts on the wrestler 'Gorgeous George' Wagner, whose talking he had seen pull huge crowds. His rhymes are now counted among the roots of hip-hop.
Q 20Which frigate earned the nickname Old Ironsides by capturing HMS Guerriere in the War of 1812?
USS Constitution
USS Constitution was repeatedly saved from scrapping by public adoration, and is now the oldest naval vessel still afloat.
Q 24Which US state is called the Lone Star State after the single star on its 1836 republic's flag?
Texas
Texas flew the star during its war for independence from Mexico. Its lone star may date to 1819, when the Long Expedition against Spanish rule is said to have carried one on its flag.
Q 25Which French singer, just 142 cm tall, took her stage surname from slang meaning 'the Sparrow Kid'?
Édith Piaf
Édith Piaf, born Édith Gassion, got the name 'La Môme Piaf' from the nightclub owner who discovered her, inspired by her nervousness and tiny frame. She later wrote the lyrics to 'La Vie en rose'.
Q 26Which singer of 'Strange Fruit' was nicknamed Lady Day by her friend and music partner Lester Young?
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday returned the favour by calling him 'Prez'. She also used Lady Day as a pseudonym on a recording made while she was under contract to Columbia.
Q 27Which crooner of 'My Way' was known as both Ol' Blue Eyes and the Chairman of the Board?
Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra put the first nickname on his 1973 comeback album, Ol' Blue Eyes Is Back, released when he came out of retirement.
Q 28Which French king cultivated his image as the Sun King, the centre of the universe 'without equal'?
Louis XIV
Louis XIV had court artists portray him as the god Apollo in sculpture, paintings and the decor of major monuments.
Q 29Which general did French troops nickname the Little Corporal after the Battle of Lodi?
Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon Bonaparte is said to have personally directed some of the guns at Lodi, which may be why his men chose the rank. The victory let him occupy Milan five days later.
Q 30Which playwright is known as the Bard of Avon after the river in his Warwickshire home town?
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was born and raised in Stratford-upon-Avon, and by 1800 he was so firmly enshrined as the national poet that 'the Bard' alone was enough.