What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.
This is where I use my teacher cap and discuss the above quote from Romeo and Juliet. For those who hear Shakespeare and it whooshes right over your head you need to get past the language barrier, because it is still English, and look at what he really means. Shakespeare is asking what do names mean anyway? If a rose was actually called a gumptisker it wouldn’t make any difference to how sweet it smells or how beautiful it is, despite the unappealing name. This quote is referenced to Romeo falling in love with a girl whose name is that of his family’s mortal enemy. So a name is just a name. Each person can make their own opinion of the thing or object with said name and that name will then either bring about good or bad connotations.
In his many, many works Shakespeare used dozens upon dozens of names even creating some himself. Some of these names are still used today, some are not. Below is a selection of names used by Shakespeare and the work that they have come from.
Adrian from The Tempest
Angus from Macbeth. Angus has been steadily growing in popularity in recent years.
Antonio from The Tempest
Barnardo from Hamlet
Benvolio from Romeo and Juliet
Cassio from Othello
Christopher from Taming of the Shrew
Claudius from Hamlet
Curtis from Taming of the Shrew
Duncan the ill fated king in the story of power hungry Macbeth
Edmund from King Lear
Hamlet the Danish Prince who talks to the ghost of his father, from the play of the same name.
Hero from the comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Hero is also used as a girls name.
Horatio from Hamlet
Hugh from the Merry Wives of Windsor. A sophisticated name that is in need of more use.
Lysansder from the romantic comedy A Midsummer Nights Dream
Orlando the lover of Rosaline from one of my personal favourites, As You Like It. Of course made famous today by popular actor Orlando Bloom who may or may not be engaged to the lovely Australian Miranda Kerr.
Romeo the famous lover of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet
Tybalt from Romeo and Juliet
Valentine from Twelfth Night. Not popular in Australia as a first name but Valentino and the feminine Valentina are common in Europe.
Alice from Henry V is a name that is starting to see a trendy comeback following years of slaughter with hundreds of spin offs like Aleisha, Aleyshia, Alicea...
Bianca the beautiful sister from the Taming of The Shrew. Meaning 'white or fair'.
Cordelia from King Lear and also the name of former senator and political heavy weight Natasha Stott Despoja’s daughter.
Emilia from Othello and A Winters Tale makes a nice change from Emma and Emily. A woman named Emilia is also rumoured to have been Will's mistress.
Helena is a name that appeared in many of Shakespeare’s works along with Helen.
Imogen from the play Cymbeline. Imogen has jumped in popularity in recent years and is an accidental Shakespeare creation. The characters name was meant to be Innogen but a printing mistake created Imogen instead.
Iris from The Tempest
Jacquenetta from Love’s Labour’s Lost, supposedly the name of a little known princess born in the mid 1500's. I can say however that it is commonly accepted as a variant of Jacqueline.
Katharina was the shrew in Taming of The Shrew who then become Kat in the film 10 Things I Hate About You starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger
Miranda from The Tempest also the name of several well known Australian's including Miranda Kerr and Miranda Otto
Ophelia was in love with Hamlet and then like almost every other character in the ill fated story, she dies. Ophelia has been springing up around name boards and birth announcements over the last 6-12 months.
Perdita from A Winters Tale has been mentioned several times on this blog, probably because it’s a favourite of mine. I think it’s due for some use.
Phoebe from As You Like It
Portia from The Merchant of Venice is the name of famous Australian actress Porti De Rossi, partner to comedian Ellen De Generis
Regan from King Lear. Yes, it’s not just a trendy sudden thing to call girls Regan, Will did it 400 years ago and it worked for him!
Titania from A Midsummer Nights Dream could be used today as the lovely Tatiana.
Viola from Twelfth Night is probably my favourite character from any play. Viola, not to be mistaken with the instrument, which is pronounced differently, would make a lovely point of difference from the lovely but increasingly popular Violet.
For name meanings and further information on specific names please use either Behind The Name or Baby Names World.
You can find a larger listing of names used in Shakespeare's works here
