Charlotte Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
49 free Charlotte trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
43 free Charlotte trivia questions with answers. Charlotte, North Carolina grew from a crossroads of two Native American trading paths into the second-largest banking centre in the United States, and this quiz covers the whole arc: the German-born queen it is named for, the British general who called it a hornet's nest, the 12-year-old whose gold nugget became a doorstop and started America's first gold rush, and the banker who turned NCNB into Bank of America. You will also find the Panthers, Hornets, Charlotte FC and Checkers, the NASCAR industry that surrounds the city, Carowinds and its painted state line, the Whitewater Center, the Lynx Blue Line, and hometown names from Billy Graham and Randolph Scott to Ric Flair and Stephen Curry's Davidson. Questions run from easy ones any newcomer will get to details that only a longtime Charlottean will know, so it works for a trivia night in NoDa, a company icebreaker or a welcome-to-town quiz. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and reference sources, and each question shows an explanation and its citation once you answer.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The Queen City is named after the wife of which British king?
George III
Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz married George III in 1761; the city carries her name and Mecklenburg County the name of her German homeland.
Q 02Charlotte's nickname the Hornet's Nest comes from a remark attributed to which British commander?
General Cornwallis
General Cornwallis occupied Charlotte in 1780 and met such hostile treatment from residents that he is said to have dubbed it 'a hornet's nest of rebellion' before withdrawing.
Q 03Settlers of which background founded Charlotte, incorporated in 1768?
Scots-Irish
Scots-Irish Presbyterians came down the Great Wagon Road in the mid-1700s and built the town where two Native American trading paths crossed; it was chartered in 1768.
Q 04Uptown's central intersection, known as The Square, is where Trade meets which other thoroughfare?
Tryon
Tryon Street, laid along an old trading path, honours colonial governor William Tryon, yet the crossing it forms with Trade Street is formally named Independence Square.
Q 05A jeweller paid roughly how much for the 17-pound gold nugget a family near Charlotte had used as a doorstop?
$3.50
$3.50 was the price John Reed named in 1802, about a week's wages and a tiny fraction of the nugget's worth; he soon knew better and opened the mine that set off America's first gold rush.
Q 06The gold-coin facility that opened in Charlotte in 1837 holds what distinction?
The first US branch mint
The first US branch mint opened in Charlotte in 1837 to coin the region's gold; the Confederacy seized it in 1861, coining soon stopped for good, and the building was later moved and reopened as the Mint Museum.
Q 07Measured by assets, Charlotte grew into the second-largest banking headquarters in the United States behind which city?
New York
New York alone outranked Charlotte in bank assets: Bank of America has been based in Charlotte since NationsBank bought BankAmerica in 1998, and Truist set up its headquarters there in 2019.
Q 08Which financier built North Carolina National Bank into what became Bank of America?
Hugh McColl
Hugh McColl ran NCNB from 1983, renamed it NationsBank, and in 1998 bought California's BankAmerica, taking the better-known Bank of America name while keeping the headquarters in Charlotte.
Q 09Charlotte-based First Union, later renamed Wachovia, was bought in 2008 by which bank?
Wells Fargo
Wells Fargo agreed to buy Wachovia in October 2008 for about $15 billion, outbidding a Citigroup rescue deal, and kept a major East Coast hub in Charlotte.
Q 10Which company announced in November 2018 that it was moving its headquarters to Charlotte?
Honeywell
Honeywell left New Jersey after Charlotte and Mecklenburg County offered about $46 million in tax breaks, the largest incentive package the two had ever given one company, against a pledge of 750 jobs.
Q 11Which university's stadium hosted the Carolina Panthers' 1995 debut season?
Clemson
Clemson's Memorial Stadium hosted the Panthers' home games in 1995, so Charlotte's NFL team began life in South Carolina before moving into its own stadium in 1996.
Q 12What happened in the Panthers' Super Bowl appearances after the 2003 and 2015 seasons?
They lost both
They lost both: New England beat Carolina 32-29 in Super Bowl XXXVIII, and Denver beat the 15-1 Panthers 24-10 in Super Bowl 50 despite Cam Newton's MVP season.
Q 13When the Panthers' Uptown home opened in 1996, what was it called?
Ericsson Stadium
Q 21Charlotte Motor Speedway is actually located in which neighbouring city?
Concord
Concord, in neighbouring Cabarrus County, is home to the speedway, which opened in 1960, slid into bankruptcy within two years and was later won back by co-founder Bruton Smith.
Q 22Which Kannapolis-born driver joined the NASCAR Hall of Fame's first class?
Dale Earnhardt
Dale Earnhardt, the seven-time champion from Kannapolis, was inducted with Richard Petty and Junior Johnson after Charlotte beat Atlanta and Daytona Beach to land the hall.
Q 23As of 2025, Charlotte Douglas International Airport is a major hub for which airline?
American Airlines
Ericsson Stadium was named for the Swedish phone maker; the Panthers paid for much of it by selling permanent seat licences, then a new idea in stadium finance that other teams went on to use.
Q 14The original Charlotte Hornets NBA team, founded in 1988, relocated in 2002 to which city?
New Orleans
Charlotte got the Bobcats in 2004, and they took back the Hornets name and the 1988-2002 history in 2014 once the New Orleans team had become the Pelicans.
Q 15The 1988 Hornets set off a sports fashion craze by choosing which primary colour?
Teal
Teal made a losing expansion team the NBA's best seller: the Hornets went 20-62 in their first season, yet by the end of it their merchandise topped the league's sales charts.
Q 16Which basketball legend led the group that bought a majority share of Charlotte's NBA team in 2010?
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan became majority owner in 2010, yet two years later his Bobcats went 7-59, the lowest winning percentage in NBA history; he sold his majority stake in 2023.
Q 17Which billionaire bought the Carolina Panthers in 2018 and then brought Major League Soccer to Charlotte?
David Tepper
David Tepper bought the Panthers from founder Jerry Richardson and won an MLS franchise the next year; a league-record 74,479 fans turned out for Charlotte FC's 2022 home debut, only to watch a 1-0 loss to the LA Galaxy.
Q 18Since 1999 the Charlotte Knights have been the Triple-A affiliate of which MLB team?
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox have supplied the Knights' players since 1999; the club spent 1989 to 2013 in Fort Mill, South Carolina, before moving into its Uptown ballpark in 2014.
Q 19Since 2010 the Charlotte Checkers have played in which hockey league?
AHL
The AHL has been the Checkers' league since 2010; pro hockey reached Charlotte in 1956, when a Baltimore team whose rink had burned down finished its season in the city and stayed.
Q 20Which town north of Charlotte calls itself Race City USA?
Mooresville
Mooresville earned the Race City USA nickname because so many NASCAR teams, drivers and racing suppliers set up shop there.
American Airlines runs one of its largest hubs at Charlotte Douglas, a role inherited from US Airways in their 2013 merger; the terminal is known for its white rocking chairs.
Q 24What kind of transit line is Charlotte's Lynx Blue Line, which opened in 2007?
Light rail
Light rail put trains back on Charlotte's streets nearly 70 years after its streetcars were scrapped; weeks before the Blue Line opened, voters rejected a repeal of its transit tax by 70 to 30 percent.
Q 25The Carowinds amusement park is unusual because what runs straight through its main entrance area?
The state line
The state line between North and South Carolina runs through Carowinds, opened in 1973; when owner Cedar Fair merged with Six Flags in 2024, the combined company put its headquarters in Charlotte.
Q 26The US National Whitewater Center in Mecklenburg County claims what record?
Largest recirculating artificial rapids river
Largest recirculating artificial rapids river is the center's own billing: pumps send the same water round its channels in a loop, and a conveyor belt carries rafts from the bottom pool back up to the start.
Q 27Lake Norman, north of Charlotte, is named for Norman Cocke, a president of which company?
Duke Power
Duke Power dammed the river at Cowans Ford in the early 1960s and named the lake, North Carolina's largest man-made one with 520 miles of shoreline, for its former president Norman Cocke.
Q 28Which world-famous evangelist was born on a dairy farm in Charlotte in 1918?
Billy Graham
Billy Graham was buried in 2018 at the Charlotte library that bears his name, a building styled as a dairy barn beside his restored boyhood home.
Q 29Which US president, the 11th, was born in a log cabin near Pineville, just south of Charlotte?
James K. Polk
James K. Polk was born there in 1795, but his family left for Tennessee when he was 10 and he made his career in that state; the log buildings at the birthplace site today are reconstructions.
Q 30Which fried chicken and biscuit chain was founded in Charlotte in 1977?
Bojangles
Bojangles was opened by Jack Fulk and Richard Thomas; Fulk, then a Hardee's franchisee, had spent the mid-1970s working out the made-from-scratch biscuits that became the chain's signature.