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Historical Figures Known by a Single Name #1

These historical figures are often known by just one name. Can you guess them based on a clue?
We are aware that many of these people had multiple names
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Quizmaster
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Last updated: January 19, 2026
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First submittedDecember 28, 2011
Times taken84,414
Average score70.0%
Rating4.31
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Answer
Painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Michelangelo
Founded the Academy of Athens
Plato
Greatest of Frankish kings
Charlemagne
Lover of both Julius Caesar and Mark Antony
Cleopatra
Author of "The Divine Comedy"
Dante
Carthaginian general who won the Battle of Cannae
Hannibal
Emperor accused of fiddling while Rome burned
Nero
The only player to win three men's FIFA World Cups
Pelé
Aztec emperor defeated by Cortes
Moctezuma
Frenchman who quipped "If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him"
Voltaire
Blind poet of ancient Greece credited with writing "The Iliad"
Homer
Japanese emperor during WWII
Hirohito
Young pharaoh who was dug up in 1922
Tutankhamun
Builder of a wall in northern England
Hadrian
Sultan who fought against the crusaders in the Third Crusade
Saladin
Discovering the principle of buoyancy, he cried "Eureka!"
Archimedes
Writer of many fables, including "The Tortoise and the Hare"
Aesop
Powhatan girl who saved John Smith in Virginia
Pocahontas
Apache leader whose name people yell when jumping from airplanes
Geronimo
It is far safer for a leader to be feared than loved, said this Italian
Machiavelli
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66 Comments
Ithabise
+1
Level 27
Dec 28, 2011
Well nobody will get that one correct.
cariad
+1
Level 40
Jun 13, 2015
Go Moops!
JackintheBox
+2
Level 82
Jan 20, 2026
Which one?
queenmaeree
+1
Level 73
Dec 28, 2011
Just don't use Wikipedia as a source when writing a paper. One of my instructors warned us that if we did, it was an automatic F.
kalbahamut
+17
Level 79
May 22, 2014
Easily remedied if you just copy the bibliography at the bottom of any (good) wikipedia page.
CmdrKeen
+11
Level 39
May 22, 2014
Exactly. Don't necessarily need to trust the body of the Wikipedia articles, but it's a great starting point for finding trusted resources.

Not all contributors to Wikipedia are trolls.

ILikeQuizes
+1
Level 61
Sep 17, 2016
My chemistry professor specifically told us to use Wikipedia when writing lab reports. I disagree with him.
ozzdome
+13
Level 73
Jun 14, 2017
Wikipedia is, in most cases, a reliable source, specifically if keeping an eye on the references. ... Most incorrect references in Wikipedia pages -- of major topics -- are corrected in short order. ... It is every bit as reliable on those major subjects as any other site.
brandybuck96
+1
Level 82
Mar 4, 2025
I've found that the references for many topics, especially less objective ones, can be pretty horrendous, not in terms of formatting or actually including them, but in terms of what the writer chose to use as a reference. Academic sources are rare; a lot are second-hand; and tons of them are extremely outdated.
Quizmaster
+2
Level ∞
Jan 19, 2026
It's getting less good over time in my opinion. The number of editors continues to decline and there are power moderators with an axe to grind who degrade the quality of information.

Worse, there have been very few improvements in 15 years despite huge increases in their budget.

martay
+2
Level 69
Aug 10, 2020
It's an awesome starting point with a trove of references that any student should at the very least look at.On a related tangent, I hope students are being taught how to use Microsoft Word's features to style and automatically manage things like the table of contents, bibliographies, references, etc. It's night and day from when I was a student.
username729
+2
Level 46
Dec 28, 2011
I love wikipedia and I use it all the time, not for papers though. Teachers don't like it because they think it is unreliable or it is too easy for the students. But anyone can tell when the articles have been edited so I don't understand what the problem is. Don't trust wikipedia if you see that the article has been edited which is rarely, and everything is fine.
dwo
+3
Level 96
Dec 28, 2011
Wikipedia: the most peer reviewed publication on the planet.
tschutzer
+8
Level 93
May 19, 2014
Nobody's questioning the quantity of peers, only the quality.
eric29cocoanuts
+1
Level 75
Dec 28, 2011
Speaking of correct spellings, the quiz gives us "Japanese emperor" and "Aztec emporer". And I don't even need to consult Wikipedia to know which one is correct!
Quizmaster
+1
Level ∞
Dec 28, 2011
Haha, I can never spell that word. Fixed now. Thanks!
TheJettSet27
+1
Level 11
Dec 30, 2011
I only know Moctezuma from a old Cartoon Network show called Time Squad. It was such a ridiculous episode!

"Ladies and Gentleman, Monty Zuma!" Nothing like changing an Aztec emperor from a comedian to an actual emperor.

Nyackjohn
+2
Level 80
Dec 31, 2011
Wikipedia is a great boon to all of us, there is no denying that! I use it constantly. I think however that many teachers are properly cautioning you, especially on more esoteric subjects. In my research I've found a few entries that were either wrong or had a very heavy editorial bent towards a specific viewpoint that might or might not be the accepted view or simply did not reflect known facts at all. One of them for a long time was the entry on the above mentioned emperor, Nero. If you'd read the original wikipedia entry on "Nero" you would have thought he was an all-around great guy who was one of Rome's greatest emperors... the historian who'd written the entry is one of a very few who like to ignore all the contemporary accounts from Nero's own time and create a "kinder gentler Nero". It's been modified some at this point, but it's still off center to a degree. Likewise, when researching some villages and towns in my county that the State of New York had forcibly moved people from in order to create som
CBTemple
+1
Level 83
Feb 10, 2012
The quizmaster is correct about Moctezuma.
typhon
+1
Level 51
Apr 15, 2018
That's what it said in my high school history book. There was also a bar in my town called "Moctezuma's"
Guyinasuit
+1
Level 25
Jun 4, 2012
Thank you Age of Empires for the ancient people...
alohonyai
+6
Level 32
Aug 1, 2012
I missed "Saladin" because I used Salah ad-Din
kalbahamut
+3
Level 79
May 22, 2014
This should be accepted but it never is. It's his proper Arabic name. Salah AlDin should also work. Or Salahuddin.
Jacko77
+2
Level 31
Mar 25, 2014
I tried 'Virgil' for the Greek writer of fables. I guess he was a Roman though...
brandybuck96
+4
Level 82
Dec 12, 2015
And he didn't write fables.
IsleAuHaulte
+5
Level 92
Jan 10, 2019
Actually, they call him MISTER Tibbs!!
kitshef
+4
Level 88
Mar 29, 2014
Must have tried 35 different spellings for Pocahontas. Not lobbying for including incorrect spellings, just expressing angst.
DonTheLamplighter
+6
Level 87
Mar 27, 2017
Pocahontas always makes me smile. For any of you who've ever seen/played the game "Password"....when I was a kid, my parents would play Password with my aunt and uncle. The Password was "dot". My mom is giving the clue to my aunt, and she just knows she's got a slam dunk, first-clue, 10-point winner. So she says, "Polka......" (extending the 2nd syllable to suggest that she wants the word that logically comes next) Without hesitating, my aunt enthusiastically responds, "Hontas!" To which, my mom, in utter disbelief replies, "What's a hontas?!!!" One of those crazy moments that becomes family legend. They're all gone now, but it still brings a smile to my face when I think of it. Such good, fun memories.
howard38
+1
Level 62
Jun 14, 2017
: )
divantilya
+2
Level 36
Nov 4, 2017
How comforting, the precious memories of those who have gone before us. Keep the Faith!
Sifhraven
+1
Level 76
Jul 18, 2019
hontas, sounds like handtas, which means handbag in dutch ;) There are some existing jokes about it, I just cant remember one specifically
trivstar
+1
Level 24
Mar 31, 2014
I'm amazed how little people knew Saladin. Surely they teach the Crusades in American Schools?
kalbahamut
+3
Level 79
May 22, 2014
They do and I first learned about Saladin in such a school.
kenpo17
+2
Level 65
Feb 24, 2017
Can't speak for others, but my schooling only gave very basic coverage to the Crusades - more or less when they were and what they were about. We didn't go into anywhere near as much detail as the subject deserves. I blame the fact that world history classes tended to teach the same stuff over and over again, because most of the students didn't retain from year to year.
kalbahamut
+1
Level 79
Jul 11, 2021
I think I first heard about them in Mr. Ahern's 6th grade class when we were studying world history, though not in very much detail. Then in 9th grade World Civilizations GT we learned about them a bit more in-depth and this was the year I think that I learned of Salad ad-Din. And later in 12th grade when I was taking AP European History (an elective) we learned about them even more in-depth including, I recall, the Children's Crusade and Venetian/Crusader sacking of Constantinople.

Reflecting on this just now it occurred to me that I may have first heard of Salah ad-Din playing Genghis Khan 2 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. I remember the Mamluks being in that game. I looked it up and he appears in one scenario but I'm not sure if I played that scenario or not.

Elegia85
+2
Level 46
Apr 10, 2020
We never learned about the Crusades in Ireland
reverendmeat
+1
Level 86
Jan 19, 2026
Not in any school I went to. We were too busy learning about the holocaust, every single year.
angrobper14
+3
Level 86
May 22, 2014
Well, just a humble comment from a Mexican guy: The question about the Aztec emperor has the wrong answer. The correct one is Cuauhtémoc.

Moctezuma II was indeed the emperor when Cortés arrived to Tenochtitlán, but he was overthrown by his people, beacuse he defended the Spaniards (believing their were gods).

Then Cuitláhuac ascended to the throne, but he was soon killed by the fearmost weapon the Europeans had brought: Smallpox.

After that, Cuauhtémoc was crowned tlatoani (emperor), and he still fought against the Spaniards. So technically he was the emperor defeated by Cortés, not Moctezuma (who was killed a year before the Spaniard victory).

ander217
+1
Level 74
Feb 24, 2017
Either name should be accepted, since both were Aztec emperors killed during the Cortes expeditions, although Cuauhte'moc was the last emperor in charge when the empire fell.
PuzzleDragon
+1
Level 26
May 26, 2014
I really want to know why Saladin is only on 26%... :/
Djilas
+2
Level 86
Dec 3, 2016
Moliere should be totally included here
ChowPizz
+3
Level 39
Apr 25, 2017
Hannibal had a last name, his full name is Hannibal Barca...
Stoggler
+2
Level 55
Mar 6, 2026
Many of the people in the quiz had more than one name, but they are all commonly known by a single name (e.g. all the Romans would have had two or three names, Michaelangelo had a much longer official name, anyone familiar with Machiavelli is likely to know his first name was Niccolo).
divantilya
+1
Level 36
May 25, 2017
What I appreciate about Wikipedia is that it updates its site almost before the event happens. Hours after Roger Moore's recent death, his bio on wikipedia was already updated... way before the printed media picked up on it.
kalbahamut
+2
Level 79
Jun 14, 2017
as per usual: Salah al Din, Salah ad Din, Saleh al Din, Saleh ad Din, Salahuddin
kalbahamut
+1
Level 79
Jun 14, 2017
which I guess makes the answer wrong, since these, more accurate, versions of his name show that he did have a a first and last name.. just mashed together and distorted
Malbaby
+3
Level 70
Jun 14, 2017
Known in the English speaking world as 'Saladin' which makes that answer correct.
kalbahamut
+2
Level 79
Oct 28, 2018
Except among English-speakers who actually know what they're talking about.
Swanbabe
+1
Level 37
Jun 14, 2017
I think Salahuddin is more accurate then Saladin...

It's like in the Satanic Verse, Saladin changing his name from Salahuddin to better appeal to western audiences.

kalbahamut
+1
Level 79
Jun 19, 2019
He didn't change his name. He's got a first and last name. Westerners who were not familiar with Arabic naming conventions mashed it together in to one name because they didn't understand what they were hearing. The same way small children call the former president "Barakobama"
SpartanLlama
+1
Level 79
Jun 15, 2017
Mostly easy, but good quiz.
typhon
+1
Level 51
Apr 15, 2018
Many of these had more than one name - Hannibal Barca, for instance, or An-Nasir Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (Saladin for short).
RobNobody
+3
Level 80
Jan 10, 2019
"These historical figures are often known by a single name." It doesn't mean they didn't HAVE an additional name, just that they are frequently referred to by just the one. People much more frequently talk about Michelangelo than they do Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni.
freon22tec
+2
Level 57
Jul 11, 2018
You should accept Showa emperor
Peteylovesgolf
+1
Level 64
Dec 9, 2020
Can it accept Salahuddin, as well as Saladin, which is merely the pronounciation of the name?
iLoveHotDads1
+3
Level 42
Jan 26, 2021
Maybe you could let karl count for “charlemagne” count too, since he was german and that was his name:)
JetPunkJP100
+1
Level 53
Jan 14, 2025
Can you accept “Pocahantas” and “Pokahantas” for Pocahontas?
Koopa
+1
Level 88
Jan 19, 2026
For the Frankish clue, "Greatest" is subjective. All of the other clues are objective.
JesseFromThe6
+1
Level 70
Feb 17, 2026
Yeah, what about Charles the Bald??
LordHydro
+1
Level 52
Mar 4, 2026
The Magne part of the name means greatest, I suppose that’s what the clue refers to.
MrFilloa
+10
Level 77
Jan 21, 2026
Machiavelli was famously his last name, first name Niccolò
SouthwestChief
+9
Level 73
Jan 21, 2026
Okay, I'm sure this is the exact type of pedantry you hate here, but I really really don't believe "Machiavelli" is any more "singular" an identifier than, like, "Washington," or "Jefferson," or "Lincoln." I very commonly hear him referred to as "Niccolo Machiavelli"... that's just his last name... and yeah, some people probably don't know his first name, but that there's a difference between that and people who are really actually only known by one name.
Kingsfisher
+3
Level 69
Jan 24, 2026
Yes, this answer also confused me. If notable surnames are also accepted, then does it mean we can also include Mussolini or Paganini here, because you understand I'm talking about Benito Mussolini and Niccolo Paganini, as much as 50% of other notable historical persons, yes?
SouthwestChief
+3
Level 73
Jan 21, 2026
Also, unrelated, but why are all the comments about Wikipedia?
Rozzi
+3
Level 61
Mar 4, 2026
How sad that the only two women on this quiz are defined by their relationship with men. And how about Boudica? Dido? Sapho? Just to even it up a bit.
Hedgehog76
+1
Level 74
Mar 5, 2026
Got them all, but I disagree a little on Dante and Machiavelli. Their last name (Alighieri) or respective first name (Niccolo) came immediately to my mind. They don't suit here as much as all of the rest where I have no idea whether they even had some other name. (I read Pele's last name once, but can't remember at all.)
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