Sneaky Honorifics! Trivia Quiz

Answer:

Let's run through who everybody is, and where the epithet falls.

Jesus Christ, I should think, will be familiar to many of you. The title of Christ means "anointed one" and refers to his status as the Messiah in Christian prophecy, hence the alternative forms "Christ Jesus" and "the Christ." "Iscariot" in "Judas Iscariot" is not a surname but an epithet of uncertain origin; it may have referred to his birthplace, Kerioth. However, the name of Pontius Pilate, who sentenced Jesus to death, followed standard Roman naming convention with a "nomen" and "cognomen."

Holiness Knowing Vajradha Dalai Lama - just Dalai Lama for short - is the title bestowed on the head of Gelug Tibetan Buddhism. There have been 14 Dalai Lamas, and all but the first have taken as a regnal name "Gyatso." The current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. Mohandas Ghandi was given the epithet Mahatma for the first time by the Nobel prizewinning poet Rabindranath Tagore.

Mansa Musa I was the ninth Mansa of the Mali Empire, which controlled vast stretches of Ghana, Guinea, Senegal and Gambia as well. Yusuf ibn Ayyub gained the epithet Salah ad-Din or Saladin, "Righteousness of the Faith," when he assented to a position in the Fatimid Caliphate. He became well-known as just "Saladin" after he rose to become the first Sultan of Egypt and of Syria.

Charlemagne, the Emperor of the pre-Roman Carolignian Emperor, ruled as Karlo to the French. At some point, possibly in his lifetime, the epithet "the Great" - "le-magne" - was appended. "Khan" was a rank in the Mongol Empire, one below the emperor or "khagan." The khan known as Genghis had the birth name Temujin.

"Oba" Ovonramwen ruled the Edo people of the Benin Empire in the 19th century. Ovonramwen was a harsh leader who relied on slaves. He was deposed in 1897 by the British Empire, who wanted to take Benin's control of West Africa's ivory, palm oil, and rubber reserves. Emir Faisal I, however, was established by the British as the King of Iraq in the 1920s and 1930s. Faisal was portrayed in "Lawrence of Arabia" by Alec Guinness.

"Ayatollah" is a term reserved for high-ranking clergy in Shia Islam. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, well-known to Westerners as simply "the Ayatollah," was the first Supreme Leader of Iran from 1979 until 1989. He had previously lead the Iranian Revolution that established the Islamic Republic of Iran and usurped its last shah.

U Thant was the third Secretary-General of the UN, the head of the organization. He held the position the longest of the nine men who served on it. Thant was Burmese. Burmese custom assigns honorifics, in Thant's case "U" given to a man in a senior position. Moammar Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary who ruled Libya as a dictator from 1979 until 2011, when he was killed during the Arab Spring. While his name might not be an honorific, it is notable: The Straight Dope lists over 30 accepted English spellings for his name!

Jigme Dorji Wangchuck was the third King of Bhutan, noted for beginning to modernize the kingdom. All six of Bhutan's kings except the first have taken the regnal name of Jigme. Le Duan was a Communist leader of Vietnam. As "General Secretary" of Vietnam's CCCP in the 1960s, he was the most powerful man in the country, since "President" was an essentially honorary title. Abdurrahman Wahid was Indonesia's fourth president, nicknamed "Gus Dur" ("handsome Abdurrahman"). Wahid promoted Chinese influence in Indonesia, making Confucianism the sixth official religion.

King Vidor was a prolific American film director. He directed versions of "War and Peace," "The Fountainhead," and a few segments of "The Wizard of Oz." Perfect for a quiz red herring, he was actually named King.