Nicknames Trivia Quiz

Answer: Napoleon

Bismarck was born in 1815, was German Chancellor from 1862 till 1890, and died in 1898. His nickname was the Iron Chancellor.
Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) was the Fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 till 1943. He was called "Il Duce".
Baudouin, King of the Belgians,(1930-1993) ascended to the throne on July 17, 1951. His death at Motril, in Spain, led to an impressive expression of public sympathy and long, long lines of mourners in the streets of Brussels.

Answer: Henry VIII

Henry II, born in 1133, King in 1154, d. in 1189, was the Plantagenet King who is best remembered by the general public for his conflict with Thomas à Becket.
Henry V(1387-1422) was the English King (coronated in 1413) who in October 1415, gave the French an impressive thrashing in the battle of Agincourt.
Henry Cooper (born in 1934), popularly known as "Our Enery" is the English boxer who in 1963
Henry VIII, is the Bluebeard-style king "with the Six Wives" who was born in 1491, ascended to the throne in 1509 and died in 1547.
Henry Cooper ( born in 1934), popularly known as "Our Enery" is the English heavyweight boxer who in 1963 knocked down Cassius Clay at Wembley but ultimately lost in 5 rounds. In 1966 he lost again from Clay, who now had already become "Mohammed Ali".

Answer: Edward VII

Edward VII (b. 1841-King 1901- d. 1910) was Prince of Wales for the larger part of his life. He was famous for his indulgence in women, food, drink, gambling, sport and travel. He probably earned his nickname because of his "tummy". So in short he may have been a womanizer who needed an abdomenizer.
Orson Welles was born in 1915 in Wisconsin. Died in 1985. An absolute superstar in the history of film: "Citizen Kane"; "the Third Man"; "Othello" etc.
Wilde was born in 1854 and died in 1900.
Was locked up in Reading Gaol. Womanising was NOT his crime.

Answer: Benjamin Disraeli

Thackeray (1811-1863) and Dickens (1812-1870) were among the top writers of the Victorian age.
Disraeli(1804-1881) was on good terms with Queen Victoria, and was not only a politician, but also a writer. Gladstone (°1809, at Liverpool- d.1898) was a politician, but not a writer and NOT on good terms with the Queen. She even complained that he addressed her "as if she was a public meeting", a thing which of course was very vulgar and by which she was not amused.

Answer: Mrs. Thatcher

Indira Gandhi(1917-1984) became Prime Minister of India in 1966, lost power in 1977, came back to power in 1980 but was assassinated in 1984.
Gold Meir, Kiev-born Prime Minister of Israël. (1898-1978)
Liz Taylor, London-born film-actress (° 1932).
Thatcher was born in 1925 in Grantham, England. In 1979 she became Britain's first female Prime Minister. In the words of Time Magazine:"Champion of free minds and markets. Helped topple the welfare-state and made the world safer for capitalism."

Answer: Old Noll

"Little Nell" is a character from the "Old Curiosity Shop" by CHarlens Dickens. Famous death-scene.
"Blighty" is now the nickname often used by ex-pats to refer to the "home-country" England. The word derives from Indian "bilayati" which means "kingdom" or "province" in Hindi. The derivation became popular during First World War.
"Old Noll" was the name given by the Royalists to Oliver Cromwell.
Nell Gwynne, was born as Eleanor Gwyn in 1650, became an actress at age fifteen, and Mistress to King Charles II, at age eighteen. She had two sons by him. She died in 1687, two years after her royal lover.

Answer: Michael Heseltine

He earnt the nickname "Tarzan" as he looked like the actor Johnny Weissmuller (who played Tarzan in the 1930s and 1940s). Edward Heath (b. 1916) became Prime Minister of Britain in 1970. He was well reputed as a yachter(skipper of the "Morning Cloud"). Harold Wilson (born 1916- d. 1995) was twice Prime Minister of Britain: 1964-1970 and again from 1974 till 1976, when he suddenly retired. Enoch Powell was born in Birmingham on June 16th 1912; he died in London in February 8th , 1998.

He became a controversial politician because of his "rivers of blood speech" about immigrants (1968).

Answer: The Limeys

Dago is a derogatory nickname for Italians and Spaniards, or even Southern Europeans in general. The word seems to derive from the Spanish first name Diego. Has also been used to refer to Mexicans.

Paddy refers to the Irish in general. "Paddy's Wigwam" in Liverpool is the name of a modernistic cathedral where Irish immigrants seem to feel at home.
Limey is a mildly derogatory term for a British sailor.
"Smiley" of course is not a nickname, but refers to the character sequences used on the world wide web to suggest certain emotions. They should be read sideways just as their prototype which stands for a happy smile, the popular emoticon :-)
B.t.w. "Tommies" as a nickname for British infantry derives from the name Tom Atkins. See Kipling.

Answer: Scottish Highlanders

NAAFI stands for "Navy, Army & Air Force Institutes" and is an organisation that provides shops, clubs, bars and restaurants for the British armed forces on every base where they are stationed.
But it was not the ladies from the NAAFI whom the Germans feared as "hellish devils". It was the kilt-wearing Scottish regiments.

Answer: parrots

It should be remarked that "parrot" itself is some kind of "nickname".
It indeed derives from French "pierrot" or "perrot" which is the diminutive of Pierre (Peter).
There are other cases of little (caged) birds being called "Peterkin".
In Flanders e.g. a canary will mostly be called "kanariepietje", but that story might lead us astray along Freudian paths.