Shakespeare

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ORIGIN & HISTORY

Shakespeare is a surname that originated in England and can be traced back to before the Battle of Hastings. On the record long before 1066, the Shakespeare family was concentrated around Nottinghamshire in Great Britain. The family name is said to have moved to other English-speaking places through widespread emigration from Great Britain due to unfavorable living conditions. Shakespeares arrived in Canada, and in what would be the U.S. and Australia and set up new lives for themselves there. ^[1]

Of course, the most famous of all Shakespeares is William Shakespeare, the English dramatist and poet. In fact, one need not even use his given name, the name Shakespeare in and of itself refers only to him.

POPULARITY

Shakespeare is not found as a common surname in the U.S. or in Great Britain, according to the search of surnames at BehindTheName. ^[1]

FACTS

An interesting angle for having Shakespeare as a name entry in this Name Wiki is his lines in Romeo & Juliet about naming. The two main characters love each other but cannot be together because of a long-standing rivalry between their two families. Because she is a Capulet and he is a Montague, their love is doomed from the start. Shakespeare's commentary on the futility of such a family rivalry boils down to 'What's in a name?':

"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." --Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2); (Juliet's lines) ^[1]

NAMESAKES

• Shakespeare is the name of a town in Ontario, a Canadian province
• Shakespeare is the name of an asteroid (2985 Shakespeare), discovered in 1983 and named after the English poet Shakespeare.
• Shakespeare is the name of a crater found on the planet Mercury.

• There's a song titled 'Shakespeare' by Akala
• A drama series was named 'Will Shakespeare' and chronicled the life of Shakespeare; it came out in 1978.
• Shakespeare is the name of one of the characters on 'Meerkat Manor', a British series chronicling the lives of meerkats.^[1]

FAMOUS PERSONS

• William Shakespeare, English renaissance poet and playwright
• Nicholas Shakespeare is a British journalist
• Robbie Shakespeare is a Jamaican musician
• Geoffrey Hithersay Shakespeare is a British politician

NOTES

OTHER SHAKESPEARE'S

Shakespeare Alofipo, Shakespeare Ang, More results

Author: Rachel Hanson