Shakespearean Baby Names That Will Melt Your Heart

"What's in a name?" William Shakespeare famously wrote in his play Romeo and Juliet. A whole lot, it turns out — at least if you're looking at the names Shakespeare used in his plays. Widely considered to be the greatest playwright in history, Shakespeare's works are wildly celebrated even today, more than four centuries since his death. His works are studied and performed all over the world, making him one of the most recognized figures in literature.

While, like a rose, your baby would "smell as sweet" no matter what you call them, picking a baby name is still a pretty big deal. Fortunately, the Bard has left us with plenty of inspiration in his plays. Giving your baby a name taken from one of Shakespeare's plays isn't just a fitting homage to an iconic writer, but it will hopefully also give your little one an appreciation for literature that will help them ace their English classes once they are a little older. Without further ado, here are some Shakespearean baby names are sure to melt your heart.

Coriolanus is not one of Shakespeare's better-known plays, but it's worth some attention in this context considering how pretty the names of some of its characters are. Take, for example, the name Valeria. A variation the name Valerie, Valeria is derived from the Latin word "valere" which means "to be strong." Valeria has become increasingly popular in recent years, taking its cue from Spain, Italy, and Mexico where it is ranked in the top 100 names for baby girls.

Valeria is a minor character in Coriolanus, one of Shakespeare's tragic works, based on the life of a Roman general. In the play, she is renowned for being chaste and noble. Because of these virtues, Valeria is sent to act as a voice of reason when Coriolanus, banished from Rome, plans to invade the city and destroy it. While Coriolanus decides not to attack Rome and works out a peace treaty, he is ultimately executed for his crimes.

We have Shakespeare to thank for the name Cordelia, or at least for this particular version of it. Shakespeare based the tragedy of King Lear on the story of the legendary King Leir who had three daughters, Gonorill, Ragan, and Cordella. When retelling the story of King Leir and his daughters in his play, Shakespeare decided to change the name to Cordelia, a name that doesn't seem to have existed before. Th fact that the name still exists today, more than 400 years after he coined it, is proof of Shakespeare's powers as a wordsmith.

In King Lear, Cordelia is the youngest daughter of the king. Disinherited by her father, Cordelia is married off to the King of France. In spite of Cordelia's sisters' claims of love for their father, they allow their husbands to banish their father from their homes after taking over his kingdom. In the end, Cordelia is the only one who remains loyal to her father and leads a rescue attempt. She is reconciled with her father, but the reunion is short lived. Both Cordelia and King Lear end up captured and executed by the enemy.

While Shakespeare himself was English, many of his plays were set in Italy — such as one of his most famous plays, The Merchant of Venice. Shakespeare used Lorenzo (the Spanish and Italian variation of the name Laurence) for one of the play's characters. While this name was pretty common back in Shakespeare's time, it's also still trending today. It's on the rise in the United States, and is in the top 100 names for babies in France, Italy, Portugal, and Switzerland.

In the play, Lorenzo is in love with Jessica, the daughter of the play's antagonist. Their romance is forbidden as Jessica is Jewish, while Lorenzo is a Christian. The odds are stacked against them, but they run off together anyway, causing Jessica to be disinherited by her father. Unlike many of Shakespeare's tales that end in tragedy, these two lovebirds get the happy ending that they deserve.

The name Ferdinand comes from Ferdinando and is derived from the German elements "fardi," meaning "journey," and "nand," meaning "daring or brave." The name has been used for centuries. While it has seen a decline in popularity over the past few decades, that just means this fantastic name is due for a comeback. If Shakespeare lived today, he would likely agree. He was a fan of the name, judging by the fact that he named a character in The Tempest as well as a character in Love's Labour Lost Ferdinand.

In The Tempest, Ferdinand is a man who will do anything for love. He falls for Miranda at first sight, and is so desperate to marry her that he agrees to become the servant of her father, Prospero, the protagonist of the play. The hardworking Ferdinand in The Tempest is a sharp contrast from the Ferdinand portrayed in Love's Labour Lost, who is a neglectful ruler — although he becomes more responsible by the end of the play.

Ariel is a Hebrew name meaning "lion of God." While it was used as a masculine name for centuries (including in Shakespearean times), it grew in popularity as a gender neutral name in the 1980s. These days, at least in the United States, the name is actually more popular for girls than it is for boys.

In The Tempest, Shakespeare gave the name Ariel to a spirit bound to a tree by a witch. When Prospero, the protagonist of the show, arrives on the island where Ariel is trapped, he frees Ariel from the tree, but then binds the spirit to himself in servitude. Ariel has considerable powers, among them the ability to shapeshift. He is also a musician as well as a gifted singer. Prospero takes advantage of Ariel's magical powers, although the spirit is eventually freed after he uses his powers to send Prospero and his entourage back to Naples on a ship.

The feminine form of Adrian, Adriana is ultimately derived from the Roman name Hadrianus, which means "from Hadria" in Latin. In use for centuries, the name Adriana is still beloved around the world in countries as diverse as Mexico, Romania, Spain, Portugal, and the Czech Republic. Perhaps part of the reason this name has endured for so long is that Shakespeare immortalized it in his play The Comedy of Errors.

As the name suggests, this play is full of laughs, although some of the humor is outdated in modern times. The character of Adriana believes that it is unfair that women do not have the same freedoms as men, and she is portrayed as being highly emotional and irrational. Women in Shakespeare's time were considered to be inferior to men, so Adriana's staunch feminism would have been a particularly funny element when it was first performed — at least to the men in the audience.