Nursery rhyme trivia questions and answers about the history, not the words: which rhyme was printed in 1609, who Mother Goose was said to be and what the oldest lullaby says.
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Nursery rhyme trivia game questions
For a shower or a family table, play First in print and Where the rhymes come from: most questions name a rhyme the room knows, then ask its year, its country or its author. Mother Goose and the collectors is the hard round.
Lullaby trivia questions and answers
The Lullabies round covers the word itself, the meter that rocks, a Roman nurses' song, and lullabies from Wales, Russia, Germany and the Philippines.
Tips
Have the table sing the first line of each rhyme before the question is read.
Questions and answers
What are some easy nursery rhymes trivia questions?
Hot Cross Buns began as what? What is Frère Jacques called in English? Which country does a 1913 song with Too-Ra-Loo-Ra in its title call home? The answers are an English street cry, Brother John and Ireland.
Are there lullaby trivia questions?
Yes, a whole round: where the word comes from, where Rock-a-bye Baby was first recorded, who wrote down the Cossack Lullaby and what a lullaby is called in the Philippines.
What is the oldest nursery rhyme in this quiz?
Of those asked by date, Three Blind Mice, printed in 1609. The table the dates come from lists older ones, and a Roman nurses' lullaby may be the oldest lullaby to survive.
How were the answers checked?
Each was read on October 3, 2026 in the English Wikipedia article linked under it: Nursery rhyme, its List of nursery rhymes, Mother Goose or Lullaby. Theories that a rhyme hides a historical event are not asked.
"As I was going to St Ives", which dates to 1730, is a nursery rhyme in which form?Answer: A riddle. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
By December 1852, what was "Pop Goes the Weasel" in England?Answer: A popular social dance. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
The earliest recorded version of Jack and Jill is in which book of about 1765?Answer: Mother Goose's Melody. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Hot Cross Buns began as what, before it was a nursery rhyme?Answer: An English street cry. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
In which book of 1805 did Little Miss Muffet first appear in print?Answer: Songs for the Nursery. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
In which decade was the earliest known version of Humpty Dumpty published?Answer: The 1790s. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
In which year were the first English collections of nursery rhymes, Tommy Thumb's Song Book and its sequel, published?Answer: 1744. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Peter Piper was published in 1813 in a book with "Practical Principles" of what in its title?Answer: Plain and perfect pronunciation. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Which is one of the oldest surviving English nursery rhymes, first found in a play of 1698?Answer: Pat-a-cake. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Which of these rhymes goes back to the 17th century?Answer: Jack Sprat. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Which rhyme was printed as early as 1609, in a music book called Deuteromelia?Answer: Three Blind Mice. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Who published Tommy Thumb's Song Book?Answer: Mary Cooper. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Mother Goose and the collectors 10
A Boston legend makes Mother Goose the second wife of a man with ten children. What was his name?Answer: Isaac Goose. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Goose
Robert Chambers published the popular rhymes of which country in 1826?Answer: Scotland. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Under whose name did Charles Perrault publish his collection of tales?Answer: His son's. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Goose
What was Joseph Ritson's collection of rhymes of 1784 called?Answer: Gammer Gurton's Garland. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Which illustrator brought out a Mother Goose in 1913?Answer: Arthur Rackham. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Which poet wrote the satire Mother Hubberd's Tale?Answer: Edmund Spenser. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Goose
Who first used the name Mother Goose for nursery rhymes, in Mother Goose's Melody?Answer: Thomas Carnan. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Who made the English translation of Perrault's tales that appeared in 1729?Answer: Robert Samber. Source: Wikipedia: Mother Goose
Who produced The Nursery Rhyme Book in 1897?Answer: Andrew Lang. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Who published The Nursery Rhymes of England in 1842, the first academic collection?Answer: James Halliwell-Phillipps. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
Where the rhymes come from 10
In which country was "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" first printed, in 1852?Answer: The United States. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
In which country was "The Farmer in the Dell" first recorded, in 1826?Answer: Germany. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Jumping over candles, as in "Jack Be Nimble", was once a sport and a form of what?Answer: Fortune telling. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
The melody of the Alphabet song was first copyrighted in 1835 by a music publisher in which city?Answer: Boston. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Monday's Child was first recorded in a book on the traditions of which English county?Answer: Devonshire. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
The origin of "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" is traced to an opera of 1706. Who wrote it?Answer: Thomas d'Urfey. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
The tune of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush" comes from which stage work?Answer: The Beggar's Opera. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
The tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is an 18th-century melody from which country?Answer: France. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
What is "Frère Jacques" called in English?Answer: Brother John. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Who published Three Little Kittens in New Nursery Songs in 1843?Answer: Eliza Lee Cabot Follen. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Lullabies 10
A lullaby that begins "Lalla, Lalla, Lalla" may be the oldest to survive. Whose nurses sang it?Answer: Roman nurses. Source: Wikipedia: Nursery rhyme
The folklorist Cecil Sharp wrote down a version of "Hush, Little Baby" in 1918. In which state?Answer: Virginia. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
In which book was "Rock-a-bye Baby" first recorded, around 1765?Answer: Mother Goose's Melody. Source: Wikipedia: List of nursery rhymes
Lullabies usually have a swinging, rocking motion. Which meter gives it?Answer: Triple meter. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
"Too-Ra-Loo-Ra-Loo-Ral", written in 1913, calls itself a lullaby of which country?Answer: Ireland. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
What does the title of the German lullaby "Der Mond ist aufgegangen" mean?Answer: The moon has risen. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
What is a lullaby called in the Philippines?Answer: An oyayi. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
What is the oldest known lullaby in the Welsh language called?Answer: Dinogad's Smock. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
Which Russian poet wrote down the "Cossack Lullaby" from the singing of a Terek Cossack woman?Answer: Mikhail Lermontov. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
The word lullaby joins the Middle English "lullen" with "bye". What does lullen mean?Answer: To lull. Source: Wikipedia: Lullaby
How this list was compiled
Written for this site; nothing was copied from another list. Questions and wrong choices are our own. Each explanation restates, in our own sentences, a fact from the English Wikipedia article named and linked beside the question (https://en.wikipedia.org, text under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license): Nursery rhyme, List of nursery rhymes, Mother Goose and Lullaby. The text of each article was fetched on October 2 or 3, 2026, and on October 3, 2026 the passage that states each fact was read in it before the question was kept. The dates and places of first record come from the table of the article List of nursery rhymes, read as the page shows it. Left out on purpose: the words of the rhymes (the site's baby shower games ask those), theories that a rhyme hides a historical event, songs first published after 1930, film and stage versions, and what other trivia sets on this site already ask (who wrote The Star, the decade of the Brahms lullaby, the home of Wee Willie Winkie, the author of the Mother Goose tales). Levels are our estimate: easy is fair for any table, medium suits people who know the subject, hard will stump most tables. Each question also carries the date its article was read (checkedOn). Licence: own work