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20 Famous People Named Thomas

Name these famous people named Thomas, real or fictional.
Includes people named Tom and Tommy
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: November 30, 2021
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First submittedJanuary 19, 2011
Times taken49,614
Average score60.0%
Rating3.72
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Clue
Answer
He purchased Louisiana from France
Thomas Jefferson
Inventor of the light bulb
Thomas Edison
"Forrest Gump" actor
Tom Hanks
"Top Gun" actor
Tom Cruise
Seven-time Super Bowl champion
Tom Brady
Archbishop of Canterbury killed in 1170
Thomas Becket
Saint of the 1200s who didn't actually
calculate how many angels
can dance on the head of a pin
Thomas Aquinas
"It's Not Unusual" to like
this Welsh singer
Tom Jones
English actor who starred as Bane
in "The Dark Knight Rises"
Tom Hardy
Mötley Crüe drummer;
Ex-husband of Pamela Anderson
Tommy Lee
Clue
Answer
Huckleberry Finn's friend
Tom Sawyer
Author of "Utopia"
Thomas More
"Free Fallin'" singer
Tom Petty
Author with many novels about
CIA analyst Jack Ryan
Tom Clancy
Starred as Loki in "The Avengers"
Tom Hiddleston
Mustachioed star of "Magnum, P.I."
Tom Selleck
Touched Jesus's wounds
Doubting Thomas
This desert fighter of WWI is often
known by his initials T.E.
T.E. Lawrence
Boy who became Voldemort
Tom Riddle
"Common Sense" pamphleteer
of the American Revolution
Thomas Paine
+7
Level 26
Nov 5, 2013
Considering that Edison only improved upon the light bulb rather than inventing it, you would be better off choosing a different example.
+32
Level ∞
Nov 6, 2013
Average person: "Edison invented the lightbulb".

Insufferable know-it-all: "Edison didn't invent the lightbulb, he just improved it".

Even more insufferable know-it-all: "Virtually every invention is a mere improvement on previous models. Edison was, more than any other person, responsible for the adoption of electric light. Therefore, if we have to give credit to anyone for inventing the lightbulb, it should be him."

+10
Level 75
Oct 19, 2014
There are too many stories of his thefts of others' ideas and inventions, and the strong-arm tactics he used to push down the competition for me to retain any respect for him.
+4
Level 74
Oct 23, 2014
Ander, those are stories. Stories aren't necessarily all true. If you look far enough into it, you'll find things about everyone you don't like
+2
Level ∞
Apr 17, 2017
@Lelokelo. You are repeating an urban legend that is not true.
+1
Level 61
Aug 3, 2017
Interesting! Thanks for the link.
+2
Level 45
Aug 3, 2017
History is written by the winners. Thomas Edison was a winner. Ergo, Thomas Edison both gets and deserves the credit for inventing the light bulb.
+15
Level 53
Aug 3, 2017
A wonderful Simpsons exchange regarding Edison:

Marge:All right already! Everyone knows the man accomplished a lot. Maybe because he didn't spend every waking moment talking about Thomas Edison.

Homer: Oh, that's where you're wrong, Marge. He was a shameless self-promoter.

+3
Level 44
Mar 12, 2018
Wow, some people just can't handle criticism.
+1
Level 82
Feb 1, 2022
Most insufferable know-it-all: insecure about being thought pedantic but unable to control themselves, puts thoughts they want to share into the mouths of hypothetical others, labels those others bad people, then states those thoughts anyway, so as to avoid being labeled an insufferable know-it-all themselves.

Omega-level Insufferable know-it-all: notices and points out the above some years later.

...and may also point out the fact that the "normal" people dislike all classes following them because of their own insecurities that emerge whenever they sense another person might think they are smarter than them.

+2
Level 76
Feb 10, 2022
I may have butted heads with you a couples times before, kal, but I gotta give credit were credit is due, and this is the first time I see you criticizing Quizmaster. And rightly so, I would add.
+3
Level 43
Mar 4, 2014
I answered Didymus for Doubting Thomas and it wasn't accepted. I know "Doubting" would be a more common answer, but "Didymus" is no less correct.
+1
Level 84
Jun 2, 2014
I was thinking just Thomas the Apostle.
+3
Level 40
Jul 14, 2015
Yes, I think Didymus, Apostle, and Disciple should also be accepted.
+1
Level 46
Jan 23, 2016
Quiz is not called "Famous Didymuses"
+3
Level 76
Aug 3, 2017
"Quiz is not called "Famous Didymuses"

Well, why doesn't it exist yet?

+2
Level 75
Jan 28, 2022
Maybe it's listed under Famous Didymi.
+4
Level 58
Aug 19, 2015
All I could come up with was St. Thomas...
+1
Level 67
Jan 26, 2018
I tried that first as well and almost recommended it, but then realized "Saint Thomas" would encompass St. Thomas More as well and force the Quizmaster to accept a double answer.
+1
Level 92
Nov 30, 2021
That’s true.
+3
Level ∞
Apr 17, 2017
Apostle and Disciple will work now
+5
Level 67
Aug 3, 2017
"Didymus" really should be an acceptable type-in for Thomas.
+4
Level 71
Jan 28, 2022
Can you accept "Thomas the Doubter" as well? I feel like anything that indicates Thomas and doubting should work, since we don't know his last name (and since "saint" might be too obvious).
+2
Level 48
Jun 3, 2014
Enough with the musician questions! Why would I need to know their names?
+8
Level 74
Feb 26, 2016
I feel the same about the American football questions
+3
Level 62
Apr 17, 2017
There are a lot of categories like this. I don't care about musician's names, sports players' names, which country hosted the Olympics in 1946, which sports team won a bowl game in 1980, etc. I just skip these and don't even bother
+1
Level 88
Oct 10, 2019
And soccer.
+2
Level 66
Dec 4, 2022
Football is much, much, much more popular than American football. Cristiano Ronaldo is 10x as famous as *checks notes* Thomas Brady.
+2
Level 66
Dec 4, 2022
Yes it's an incredibly niche sport globally. May as well name handball or hockey players (not the "ice" kind that North Americans think is the default).
+1
Level 75
Feb 2, 2017
In case they ever crop up on a quiz?
+5
Level 65
Aug 4, 2017
I feel that way about Harry Potter questions.
+2
Level 84
Sep 16, 2014
Geez, why is it that I always think of Thomas Aquinas when there's a question about Becket?
+2
Level 51
May 1, 2015
I thought of Thomas Aquinas, too...without even looking at the clues. lol
+1
Level 65
Oct 4, 2019
Yea Thomas Aquinas would be a good addition, I was sure he would be here. (and perhaps tom hiddleston?)
+9
Level 89
Jan 13, 2015
No Thomas the Tank Engine?
+2
Level 65
Aug 4, 2017
No Tom Smothers, either.
+2
Level 95
Nov 29, 2016
St Thomas and Thomas the apostle or disciple should definitely be acceptable answers
+2
Level 51
May 15, 2017
Marvolo Riddle doesn't work.
+1
Level 59
Aug 3, 2017
Since when does "Marvolo Riddle" contain the words "Tom" or "Thomas"?
+3
Level 59
Aug 3, 2017
His full name is Tom Marvolo Riddle. So yes, Marvolo Riddle should work.
+6
Level 89
Aug 3, 2017
Why don't you just type Riddle? It's much quicker to just do it that way.
+1
Level 52
Aug 3, 2017
Only 69% for Jefferson and he's the pic of the quiz. As Mr. Trump might say, sad!
+10
Level 83
Mar 3, 2018
Somehow I doubt Trump would recognise Jefferson from a picture.
+2
Level 66
Dec 4, 2022
We're not all from the USA??
+2
Level 85
Aug 3, 2017
No Tommy? He's a Pinball Wizard.
+3
Level 76
Sep 5, 2018
There has to be a twist.
+2
Level 88
Oct 10, 2019
He has such a supple wrist.

Okay, it gets weird right there.

+4
Level 88
Dec 3, 2017
Can 'Thomas the Doubter' be accepted, that's what everyone in my part of the world calls him?
+1
Level 71
Feb 15, 2018
You must be in Wales, where it its Jones the Baker, Evans the Butcher etc.
+3
Level 44
Mar 20, 2019
Brady has six Super Bowls now
+1
Level 50
May 19, 2021
7 now lol
+1
Level 36
Jan 29, 2022
ikr stole it from chiefs :( was so sad lmaoo
+2
Level 68
May 9, 2020
Add Tom Nook XD
+1
Level 59
May 12, 2021
Brady has seven rings
+1
Level 90
Jan 29, 2022
He also has 7 deflated game balls in his trophy case.
+6
Level 85
Nov 30, 2021
Hope Tommy Wiseau gets added to this quiz someday.
+4
Level 84
Nov 30, 2021
"Oh hi Mark!"
+3
Level 95
Nov 30, 2021
In agreement with some of the 'Doubting Thomas' comments above, I really think that the usage of 'Doubting Thomas' is a problematic answer for at least the two following reasons:1) While the Gospel story is often reduced to the idea of 'Doubting Thomas' as a colloquialism, the theological context of the passage is much more complex and yields an ethic that embraces 'doubt' and testing, as opposed to maligning the possibility of doubt.2) From a much more pragmatic and theistically neutral standpoint, no site/text named after this Thomas is referred to as 'Doubting Thomas Collegiate Church', 'The Gospel of Doubting Thomas', etc. A more ecclesiologically/historically appropriate referent would be: 'St Thomas the Apostle', or simply 'St Thomas'.
+1
Level 77
Nov 30, 2021
I enjoy that Tom Jones and Tommy Lee are present in this quiz but Tommy Lee Jones is absent. Also, the first Tom I thought of was Joad!
+1
Level 73
Dec 2, 2021
Can you accept Thomas Aquino
+1
Level 71
Jan 28, 2022
I got 5 wrong, but none of them were among the 5-least-commonly-guessed. Go figure.
+1
Level 71
Jan 28, 2022
On the question about T.E. Lawrence, I misread WWI as WWE. Needless to say, I feel pretty stupid getting that wrong :P
+1
Level 75
Jan 28, 2022
one fictional dude
+1
Level 55
Jan 28, 2022
Thomas Edison did not invent the lightbulb. That was Joseph Swan. He did plenty of other stuff so it should be easy enough to rewrite to something he actually did.
+2
Level 90
Jan 29, 2022
To all of the Edison comments.

There is a difference between saying "the lightbulb" and "a lightbulb" and it is relatively fair to say that Edison invented "the lightbulb" after many others invented "a lightbulb"

The first artificial light was actually invented by Humphrey Davy in 1802, but his bulb was not practical and too expensive to mass produce.

What Edison did is invent a lightbulb that could be mass produced, making it *the* first, viable lightbulb for use by the masses.

"The lightbulb" as we know it, was invented by Edison.

+1
Level 77
Jan 29, 2022
Why do most people know more about actors than they do about saints?
+2
Level 66
Dec 4, 2022
We're not all religious??
+1
Level 80
Dec 15, 2022
Bro do you know how many saints there are? Like 10 thousand. You know how many Toms starred in top gun? Like 2.
+1
Level 27
Jan 30, 2022
Tom Jones is a fabulous entertainer. Of course I of him dancing and singing with Carlton on Fresh Prince as Carlton’s guardian angel. 😊
+1
Level 80
Dec 15, 2022
Please accept Tom Skerritt for the Top Gun question :)