Pass On Your Name and Earn Lasting Fame Quiz

Answer: Sasso Marconi, Italy

Located 17 km (11 mi) southwest of Bologna, in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna, Sasso Marconi is named after the famous Italian scientist, inventor and entrepreneur Guglielmo Marconi, who was awarded the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics. Marconi was born in Bologna (whose airport is also named after him), and lived most of his life in Sasso Marconi; his residence, Villa Griffone, is now a museum.

The name "Sasso" - meaning "rock" comes from a Pliocenic rock formation (Sasso della Glosina) overlooking the town.

Answer: Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

Though many Mexican cities bear the name of Benito Juárez, who was President of Mexico from 1858 to 1872, Ciudad Juárez, in the state of Chihuahua, is by far the largest and best known of them. Located on the Rio Grande, south of the US city of El Paso (Texas), it forms with the latter the second-largest binational metropolitan area on the US-Mexico border.

The city, founded in 1659 by a Franciscan friar, was known as Paso del Norte until 1888, when it was renamed in honour of Mexico's 26th President, a charismatic politician of indigenous descent.

At present, Juárez (as it is commonly known) has nearly 1,500,000 inhabitants; though in recent years it has been plagued by violence (mostly due to drug wars), crime has been steadily decreasing.

Answer: Pushkin, Russia

Formerly known as Tsarkoye Selo and Detskoye Selo, Pushkin is located about 24 km (15 mi) south of St Petersburg. It was founded in 1710 by Catherine I, the second wife of Peter the Great, whose modest residence was rebuilt into a much more luxurious palace by Empress Elizabeth, Peter's daughter.

In 1937, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the death of Alexander Pushkin, the flamboyant Romantic writer who is considered the founder of modern Russian literature, the town's name was changed to Pushkin.

The Catherine Palace is known for its magnificent Amber Room, a reconstruction of the original that was lost during WWII. The town is also home to a number of museums and parks.

Answer: Baltimore, USA

Cecil Calvert, second Lord Baltimore, was a member of the Irish House of Lords; Baltimore Manor (the anglicized form of Baile an Ti Mhoir, "town of the big house") was the name of the estate of the Calvert family in the Irish province of Leinster. Calvert, who in 1632 had been granted the colony of Maryland by King Charles I, wished to create a safe haven for English Catholics at a time when Europe was torn by wars of religion.

Inhabited by Native Americans for millennia, the area that is now Baltimore County was populated by English settlers around 1659; however, modern-day Baltimore was established in 1729.

The city, located on Chesapeake Bay, about 60 km (40 mi) north of Washington, DC, is now a major port and centre of higher learning, as well as a popular tourist destination.

Answer: Augsburg, Germany

In the early years of the Roman Empire, many new cities were named after Caesar Augustus, the first emperor. Located in the historic region of Swabia (the home of the Hohenstaufen dynasty), in the federal state of Bavaria, Augsburg was founded in 15 BC as Augusta Vindelicorum.

In the 13th century it was granted the status of Free Imperial City, a situation that lasted for 500 years; the Augsburg Confession of 1530 is one of the most important documents of the Lutheran Reformation. Now Augsburg is a university town, and Germany's third-oldest city.

The city of Aosta, in north-western Italy, is also named after Augustus.

Answer: Adelaide, Australia

The capital of the state of South Australia was founded in 1836 on the site of an Aboriginal settlement. Designed by Colonel William Light, the first Surveyor-General of the Colony of South Australia, the city was named after Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, the spouse of William IV, who was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the time. Now home to over one million people, Adelaide is known as the City of Churches - a nickname referring to its diversity of faiths and commitment to religious freedom.

Answer: Faisalabad, Pakistan

Located in the eastern province of Punjab, Faisalabad is Pakistan's third-largest city, and a thriving industrial and commercial centre - as well as a seat of learning and research. Founded in the late 19th century, it was one of the first planned cities in British India.

In 1979, its original name, Lyallpur, was changed to Faisalabad ("City of Faisal") in honour of King Faisal of Saudi Arabia (who had been assassinated four years earlier) and his close relationship with Pakistan.

Answer: Valdivia, Chile

Located in southern Chile, Valdivia is the capital of the Los Rios Region. Though the area around it had been inhabited since prehistoric times, the city was founded in 1552 by Pedro de Valdivia, a former follower of Francisco Pizarro in his conquest of Peru, who later became the first Governor of Chile. Present-day Valdivia relies mostly on forestry-related activities, as well as tourism - on account of the region's unique ecosystem of temperate rainforests; it is also an important research centre for environmental issues.

The city has also the rather unfortunate distinction of having suffered the strongest earthquake ever recorded (9.5 magnitude) on May 22, 1960.

Answer: Thessaloniki, Greece

Greece's second-largest city, and the capital of the region of Greek Macedonia, Thessaloniki lies on the Thermaic Gulf, in the north-western corner of the Aegean Sea. Its metropolitan area is home to over one million people; the city is a major industrial and commercial centre, and is also renowned for its cultural life. Founded around 315 BC by King Cassander of Macedon, it was named after his wife, Thessalonike ("victory in Thessaly"), a daughter of Philip II and half-sister of Alexander the Great. During the Byzantine era, Thessaloniki was the Empire's second most important city after Constantinople - as witnessed by its many Byzantine monuments (some of them restored or rebuilt after the fire that destroyed two-thirds of the city in 1917) inscribed in UNESCO's World Heritage List.

Answer: Brazzaville, Congo

Though he became a French citizen at the age of 22, and is therefore better known by the French version of his name, Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzŕ was born in Castel Gandolfo, near Rome, from a noble Italian family. His explorations in Central Africa led the way for the creation of the French colonies in that region.

The city which bears his name, founded by Brazzŕ himself in 1880, is now the capital of the Republic of the Congo. It lies on the north side of the Congo River, opposite Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly known as Zaire); the two cities form a conurbation that is home to about 12 million people.