Answers to Quiz 15

              How did they get those names?

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• Here are the answers, found from the Credo reference online reference books

1. Why was Chico Marx given the nickname 'Chico'?
   Because he was always chasing the 'chicks'.
   Stalin adopted his name from a Russian word meaning what?
   Steel
2. Dame Nellie Melba was an Australian soprano who took her surname in honour of her birthplace, which was what?
   Melbourne
3. Where did the writer Mark Twain get his name from?
   From the calls used by Mississippi pilots when taking sounds, in this case the two-fathom mark on the leadline
4. Comedian Eric Morecambe got his surname from where?
   His northwest hometown of Morecambe
5. Writer Rebecca West took her name from the heroine of which play?
   Ibsen's 'Rosmersholm'
6. The Siberian monk Rasputin got his nickname from his fellow villagers, and he lived up to his nickname until the end. What did it mean?
   Dissolute
7. The writer George Orwell took his surname from something in Suffolk. Was it a town, a well or a river?
   A river
8. The spy Mata Hari got her name from a Malay expression meaning 'eye of the day'. Did it mean the dawn, a daisy or the sun?
   The sun
9. The English novelist and dramatist Clemence Dane took her pen-name from what?
   The London church of St Clement Danes
    

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