US State Flags Trivia
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This state flag trivia quiz has 100 free questions with answers and covers all the flags worth knowing something about: Ohio's swallowtail, the orphan who drew Alaska's stars, why Hawaii flies the Union Jack, the last grizzly on California's flag, Maryland's medieval banner, New Mexico's Zia sun, the pelican tearing its breast on Louisiana's, and the redesigns of the 2020s in Mississippi, Utah and Minnesota. It also gets into the vexillologists' verdicts: which flag was voted the best design in North America, which was worst, and why so many states fly a 'seal on a bedsheet'. The early questions suit a classroom geography unit or a family road-trip game; the later ones ask about eagles, torches, crossing rifles and Helvetica Bold. Play it before a Flag Day or Fourth of July gathering, or as a round in a US geography quiz. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and state flag statutes, and each question shows its citation once you have answered.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which is the only US state flag that is not rectangular?
Ohio
The swallowtail 'burgee' was designed by John Eisenmann in 1901; its 17 stars mark Ohio as the 17th state and the disc suggests the letter O.
Q 02Which state's flag, adopted in 1927, was designed by schoolboy Benny Benson for a territorial contest?
Alaska
Alaska chose his eight gold stars, the Big Dipper and Polaris, on a blue field. Benson said the blue stood for the Alaskan sky and for the forget-me-not, a local flower.
Q 03Which state flag features the Union Jack of the United Kingdom in its canton?
Hawaii
Hawaii's canton recalls the British flag that Captain George Vancouver presented to Kamehameha I in the 1790s, which flew unofficially over the islands until 1816. The eight stripes stand for the eight main islands.
Q 04Which mainland state's flag once served as the national flag of an independent country?
Texas
Texas adopted the Lone Star Flag in 1839 as its republic's national flag. An 1879 revision of the statutes left the flag law out and so repealed it, leaving the state with no legal flag until 1933.
Q 05The grizzly on California's flag is said to be modelled on Monarch, a bear captured in 1889 for which newspaper magnate?
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst ordered the capture as a publicity stunt for his San Francisco Examiner. Monarch then spent 22 years caged in the city.
Q 06Which state's flag is the heraldic banner of the Calvert family, the English barons who founded the colony?
Maryland
Maryland quarters the Calverts' black and gold with the red and white of the Crosslands, the first baron's maternal family. In the Civil War the two sets of colours marked its Union and Confederate sides.
Q 07The red sun on a yellow field, adopted as a state flag in 1925, comes from which Native American people?
The Zia
The Zia hold the number four sacred, so their sun has four groups of four rays: for the directions, the seasons, the times of day and the stages of life.
Q 08Which flag topped a 2001 North American Vexillological Association survey of 72 state, territorial and provincial flags?
New Mexico
New Mexico's red sun on yellow beat Texas into second place. Its two colours are those of Spain, which once ruled the region.
Q 09The orange-coloured star at the centre of Arizona's flag represents what?
The state's copper production
The state's copper production gives the star its metallic colour. The red and yellow rays above it suggest a desert sunset and borrow the colours of the Spanish flag, a nod to the early explorers.
Q 10The gold disc inside the red C on Colorado's flag represents what?
The state's abundant sunshine
The state's abundant sunshine was the first meaning given for the disc when the flag was adopted in 1911. The second was gold itself, the metal that drew many early settlers.
Q 11The palmetto tree on South Carolina's flag honours the tree's role in what?
Absorbing British cannon fire at Fort Moultrie
Absorbing British cannon fire at Fort Moultrie was the work of spongy palmetto logs: in June 1776 the soft wood took the fleet's cannonballs without shattering, and the warships withdrew.
Q 12Which state adopted a brand-new flag in January 2021, featuring a magnolia blossom and 21 stars?
Mississippi
Mississippi voters approved the design in a November 2020 referendum, months after lawmakers retired the 1894 flag, which carried the Confederate battle emblem in its corner.
Q 13On the magnolia flag a Deep South state adopted in 2021, what does the lone gold star represent?
Q 21Rhode Island's flag shows a gold anchor and 13 stars above which one-word motto?
Hope
Hope has sat with the anchor on Rhode Island's seal since the seventeenth century. The pairing was probably inspired by a biblical line that speaks of hope as 'an anchor of the soul'.
Q 22Which state's flag was ranked worst of 72 in a 2001 vexillology survey for violating 'all the principles of good flag design'?
Georgia
Georgia's 2001 flag crammed the state seal, lettering and five miniature historic flags into one design, which one survey respondent mocked as 'Five Flags Under Georgia'. The state scrapped it in 2003.
Q 23Which state's flag flew upside down over its capitol for ten days in 2017 before anyone noticed?
Nebraska
The state's Native American tribes
The state's Native American tribes are honoured by the gold star, which sits apart from the 20 white stars that mark the 20th state to join the Union.
Q 14The Peach State's flag adopted in 2003 is based on which historic banner?
The Confederacy's first national one
The Confederacy's first national one, the Stars and Bars, gave the design its three red and white bars and blue canton. Voters confirmed the new flag in a March 2004 referendum.
Q 15Which state's 2024 flag features a gold beehive above a white star inside a blue hexagon?
Utah
Utah's beehive stands for the state motto, 'Industry', and goes back to Deseret, the Mormon settlers' name for the territory, a word they took to mean honeybee.
Q 16Which state adopted a new state flag that took effect in May 2024?
Minnesota
Minnesota's flag sets an eight-pointed North Star, for the state motto 'Star of the North', on a dark blue shape that echoes the state's outline. It took effect on 11 May, the anniversary of statehood.
Q 17Which state's flag has a white silhouette of an American bison bearing the state seal on its side?
Wyoming
Wyoming's bison wears the state seal on its flank like a brand, a nod to the Western custom of branding livestock. Verna Keays won a 1916 design contest with it.
Q 18Which is the only US state flag with a different design on each side?
Oregon
Oregon shows the shield from its seal on the front and a gold beaver on the back. Two-sided state flags were once common, but most were dropped because they cost so much to make.
Q 19Which is the only US state flag with a green field?
Washington
Washington's green suits the Evergreen State, and the seal at its centre carries a portrait of the state's namesake. It had no official flag until 1923, more than 30 years after statehood.
Q 20Tennessee's flag designer said the stars on it stand for what?
The state's Grand Divisions
The state's Grand Divisions, East, Middle and West Tennessee, are what LeRoy Reeves said his three stars meant when he designed the flag in 1905. The circle around them binds the three into one state.
Nebraska's own state senator Burke Harr revealed the mistake. He said the fact that nobody had spotted it showed it was time for a new design.
Q 24Oklahoma's flag shows a war shield of which Native American nation?
Osage
Osage warriors' shield replaced a red flag bearing the number 46, dropped in 1925 because red flags had come to suggest communism. The pipe and olive branch laid across the shield both stand for peace.
Q 25Which state's flag rings a gold torch with 19 stars, marking its place as the 19th state in the Union?
Indiana
Indiana's law sets 13 stars in an outer circle for the original states, five inside for those that followed and one larger star above the flame for itself. Paul Hadley's design won a 1916 contest.
Q 26Louisiana's flag shows a pelican doing what?
Tearing its breast to feed its young
Tearing its breast to feed its young is something real pelicans never do, but the image has stood for self-sacrifice since the Middle Ages. Louisiana was using it on its state seal by 1812.
Q 27Which two state flags consist of a red diagonal cross (saltire) on a white field?
Alabama and Florida
Alabama and Florida both fly a red diagonal cross on white. Alabama's dates from 1895; Florida added the cross to its white flag in 1900, reportedly so that it would not be taken for a flag of surrender.
Q 28Which state's flag centres on a white diamond because in 1913 it was the only state producing diamonds?
Arkansas
Arkansas adopted Willie Hocker's design in 1913. The 25 white stars on the blue band around the diamond mark it as the 25th state to join the Union.
Q 29The wreath on Nevada's flag is made of which plant, the state flower?
Sagebrush
Sagebrush sprays cradle a silver star for the Silver State. The scroll above them reads 'Battle Born', because Nevada joined the Union in 1864, during the Civil War.
Q 30Kansas's flag pairs the state seal with which flower?
Sunflower
Sunflower, the state flower, sits above the seal on a twisted blue and gold bar. In 1953 Kansas also adopted a second official banner that is simply one large sunflower on blue.