How it works
These vampire trivia questions come from folklore and old books, not films or shows: what the legends said, the names from Romania to Greece, the tales before 1897, the novel of that year and the animals named after vampires.
Read the full guide
Five rounds, from garlic to the novel
What the old legends say covers the wards: garlic, mustard seed, a mirror on the door. Names, words and the panic of the 1700s runs from the strigoi to the empress who ended the scare. Poems, tales and penny dreadfuls is the fiction before 1897, and The novel of 1897 follows the book from the castle to Whitby.
A round for the younger players
Named after the vampire is all bats, a squid, a finch, a moth and one orchid. Every legend is asked as a legend, and the grisly parts of the old reports are left out.
- Hosting a Halloween quiz? The novel of 1897 and Named after the vampire suit a mixed table best.
Questions and answers
What are some easy vampire trivia questions?
Which bulb is the best-known ward against vampires? What must happen before a vampire can enter a house? What is Jonathan Harker's profession in the 1897 novel? The answers are garlic, the owner must invite it in, and solicitor.
Where does the word vampire come from?
It reached English in news reports of the 1730s, spelled vampyre, possibly through French or German. Those words came from the Serbian vampir. The reports were about vampire panics in eastern Europe.
Are vampire bats named after vampires?
Yes. The Oxford English Dictionary records the folklore sense of the word in English from 1734 and the bat sense from 1774. Vampire bats live in Latin America, and there are none in Europe.
What was the first vampire story?
The vampire of modern fiction began with The Vampyre in 1819, whose Lord Ruthven is a nobleman. Poems came first: a short German one in 1748 and Byron's The Giaour in 1813. Carmilla followed in 1872, 25 years before Dracula.
How were the answers checked?
Each answer was checked on October 8, 2026 against the English Wikipedia article linked under it, twenty articles in all. Where two articles disagreed, as on the year Bram Stoker was born, the fact was not asked.