What Was My First Name? Trivia Quiz

Answer: David

David Abercrombie was born on June 6, 1867, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Abercrombie was a civil engineer, topographer, and explorer. During his work, which ultimately led to him becoming Chief of Survey for the Norfolk & Western Railroad, he discovered that the clothing and gear for working outdoors were subpar, so he started making his own and soon had a business selling his products.

Ezra Fitch, a lawyer, was a regular customer. He was also a big supporter of the company. Soon, his name was added to the company name, and it became known as Abercrombie and Fitch. The two often disagreed on how the business should run. In 1907, Abercrombie sold his part to Fitch and left the business. David Abercrombie died on August 29, 1931, in Ossining, New York.

Answer: Christopher

Christopher George Latore Wallace was born on May 21, 1972, in Brooklyn, New York City, NY, USA. He was the first artist to sign with Sean Combs's Bad Boy Records, and started recording with other artists in 1993. The following year, he released his first solo album, "Ready to Die." The album helped make East Coast hip-hop gain prominence at a time when West Coast hip-hop was the most prominent.

He was named Rapper of the Year by the Billboard Music Awards in 1995. In 1996, Tupac Shakur was murdered, and some people speculated Biggie (as he was also known) could have been involved. The two had a feud going on due to the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop rivalry. Sadly, on March 9, 1997, Biggie Smalls (as he was also known) was killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles, California. He was only 24 years old.

Answer: William

William Henry Davies was born on July 3, 1871, in Newport, Monmouthshire, Wales. As a teenager, he and four of his schoolmates were arrested for stealing handbags. His punishment was twelve strokes with the birch. Shortly after he wrote his first poem, "Death."

In 1899, while living as a tramp, he unsuccessfully attempted to jump a freight train. His right foot crushed, he had to have his leg amputated below the knee. In 1913, he wrote his poem "The Fog," which shows how a person may have a disability in one situation, but not in another. He not only drew on his sordid life for his poetry, but also on nature. He died at the age of 69 in 1940.

Answer: Mary

Mary Ann Evans was born on November 22, 1819, in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. She was a major writer during the Victorian Era. She had a scandalous adult life. She lived with a married man, who was in an open marriage with another woman. Evans lived with George Henry Lewes from 1854 to 1878, when he died.

Evans decided to write novels. There were some women writers, but they were stereotyped and not taken seriously, so Evans took the male name George Eliot. George, coming from her deceased partner, and Eliot, she explained, was "a good mouth-filling, easily pronounced word." She wrote six novels, including "Silas Marner" and "Middlemarch." In May 1880, she married John Cross and took his name. In December of that year, she had a throat infection, as well as kidney disease. She died at the age of 61 on December 22nd.

Answer: Johann

Johann "Hans" Holzel was born on February 19, 1957, in Vienna, Austria. He was part of a set of triplets, but his mother miscarried the other two babies. By the time he was two, he was already showing signs of musical talent, having a great sense of rhythm. He played music by artists like Elvis and the Beatles on a recorder he was given for his fifth birthday. During the late 70s, he was a bassist for an Austrian rock group called the Hallucination Company. This is also when he took his stage name, Falco. He adapted the name from Falko Weispflog, who was a former ski jumper from East Germany.

In 1981, he was signed on by manager Markus Spiegel. His first single was "Der Kommissar." The song combined rap with singing at a time when rap was still relatively new. In 1986, he recorded his big hit "Rock Me Amadeus." The song was partially inspired by the Oscar-winning movie "Amadeus," which came out two years earlier. The song reached number one worldwide, including in the US, UK, and Japan.

Falco was insecure and as a result, he started abusing cocaine and alcohol. On February 6, 1998, he was killed in a car accident in the Dominican Republic. He was 40 years old. He had both drugs and alcohol in his system at the time of his death.

Answer: Leo

Leo Anthony Gallagher Jr was born on July 24, 1946, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He was known for his prop-based, observational comedy. Most notably, he always smashed a watermelon at the end of every show. This started with him introducing the sledge-o-matic. He would then randomly smash other smaller items, finishing with the watermelon. The audience members in the first few rows would cover themselves with garbage bags, umbrellas, etc., to be protected from items flying at them.

Gallagher dubbed himself "The Wizard of Odd." He was known for his "witty wordplay." For example, he noticed the absurdity of the English language. He noted that do and go do not rhyme, but dough and go do rhyme. Despite a heart condition, Gallagher toured until 2020. The COVID pandemic forced him to stop. Gallagher died in Palm Desert, California, USA, from organ failure on November 11, 2022. He was 76.

Answer: Henry

Sir Henry Rider Haggard was born on June 22, 1856, in Bradenham, Norfolk, England. He was one of ten children. In 1875, he was sent by his father to South Africa to do an internship as the assistant to the secretary to Sir Henry Bulwer. Bulwer was the Lieutenant-Governor of the Colony of Natal. A year later, Haggard was moved to work under the staff of Sir Theophilus Shepstone, the Special Commissioner for Transvaal. He was in Pretoria in 1877, when the British annexed the Boer Republic of Transvaal. In fact, he was the one who raised the Union flag.

In 1884, Haggard became a lawyer, but he was more interested in writing novels than practicing law. In 1885, he published his novel, "King Solomon's Mines." He was influenced by the "larger-than-life adventurers" he met during his time in Africa. "King Solomon's Mines" was a best seller and one of the best-selling books in history. H. Rider Haggard died on May 14, 1925, in Marylebone, London, at the age of 68.

Answer: Maria

Maria Jose de Pablo Fernandez was born on November 12, 1979, in Santiago, Chile. Cote was a childhood nickname. When she was ten years old, she moved with her mother and siblings to Miami, Florida, where her mom had a job working for a Spanish-speaking television channel. In school, she studied theatre. She attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and continued her studies in theatre and music. She started working when she was fifteen. She hosted some episodes of the talk show "Control" (1994-1995) that aired on the Spanish-speaking TV channel Univision.

She is best known for her role as Ziva David in the series "NCIS." She played the role from 2006 until 2013. While her character left in season 11, Ziva was not killed off until 2013. It was revealed that Ziva David was killed in an explosion in Israel. However, in 2016, the plot changed again, and it was revealed that Ziva survived and was in hiding. De Pablo made a cameo in the season 16 finale in 2019.

Answer: George

George Herman "Babe" Ruth was born on February 6, 1895, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. Often in trouble as a child, he was sent away to a boys' school. His family rarely visited him. There are conflicting stories as to how Babe started playing baseball. However, while at St. Mary's (the school for boys), he played multiple positions, including catcher and shortstop, which are rare positions for a left-handed person.

Ruth showed a great ability both in pitching and hitting home runs. In 1914, he signed a contract with Jack Dunn, who owned the minor-league Baltimore Orioles team. He most likely got the nickname Babe during his time in the minors. Accounts differ as to how, but most have some spin on him being "Dunnie's babe." Babe was also a common nickname back then.

Ruth proved to be an ace pitcher. Dunn had some financial issues. He offered Ruth to the Philadelphia Athletics, but they also had financial difficulties, so he went to the Boston Red Sox. In his rookie year, he wanted to do batting practice even though he was a pitcher. He came to practice to find that they had sawn his bats in half.

In 1915, the Sox won the AL pennant; however, Ruth did not pitch in the World Series. However, the Sox still won, and Ruth was used in Game Five as a pinch hitter but grounded out. Ruth was gaining attention not only as a pitcher but as a home run hitter. In a game against the St. Louis Browns, he hit a ball so far that it ended up leaving the park. The ball broke the window of a Chevrolet dealership. In 1918, the Sox won their last World Series until 2004. Following the 1919 season, Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees. Because the Sox did not win again for 86 years, this was known as the Curse of the Bambino. Bambino is the Italian word for Babe.

Ruth played with the Yankees from 1920 until he retired in 1934. During that time, the Yankees won four World Series. Ruth also set a record for most home runs hit in a season. The record remained until 1974 when Hank Aaron broke it.

In 1926, a well-known story went around about Ruth and a child in the hospital. Johnny Sylvester fell off his horse and was injured. The Bambino promised to hit a home run for him. Ruth did not visit him until after, but the message was relayed to the boy. Ruth came through and hit the homer. In 1936, Babe Ruth was one of the first five players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ruth died in his sleep on August 16, 1948, at the age of 53. He had cancer, but was never told.

Answer: Helen

Helen Folasade Adu was born on January 16, 1959, in Ibadan, British Nigeria. She was raised in England - she moved there when she was four after her parents separated. She attended Saint Martin's School of Art in London and had a modest career as a fashion designer and part-time model. In the early 1980s, she briefly joined a band called Pride before she formed her own band, Sade. In 1985, Sade performed with other performers at Live Aid.

Adu got her nickname, Sade, from her middle name, Folasade, which means "crowned with wealth." Sade's third single, "Smooth Operator" (1984), was her most successful song in the United States. It reached number one on the charts. In 1986, Sade won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. In 1986, Sade also started acting. Her first film was "Absolute Beginners."

After their third album was released in 1992, the group took an eight-year hiatus. When they returned in 2000, they recorded their album "Lovers Rock." In 2002, the album won Sade a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album. The single "By Your Side" was nominated for Best Pop Vocal Performance but lost to Nelly Furtado's "I'm Like a Bird." In 2011, they won another Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for their song "Soldier of Love."