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Abstract
Just as Shakespeare’s plays left their indelible stamp on the English language, so too did his names influence the naming pool in England at the beginning of the 17th century and beyond. Today, certain popular modern names are often described as inventions of Shakespeare. In this article, we revisit three names which are often listed as coinages of Shakespeare’s and show that this received wisdom, though oft-repeated, is in fact incorrect. The three names are Imogen, the heroine of Cymbeline; and Olivia and Viola, the heroines of Twelfth Night. All three of these names pre-date Shakespeare’s use. Further, we show in two of the three cases that it is plausible that Shakespeare was familiar with this earlier usage. We conclude by briefly discussing why these names are commonly mistakenly attributed to Shakespeare’s imagination; and we examine the weaker, but not mistaken, claims which may underlie these attributions.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 Thus contradicting Coates (Citation1976), “The female personal name Imogen is first recorded as the name of the heroine of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline” (1).
2 The charter is reprinted, without the marginal note, in Hennes Citation1845, 149, no. 158. A portion of it is reprinted in Grusners Citation1775, 62, with the relevant text reading “Et hoc facimus favore Vxoris nostre Imoginis”, which introduces its own typo!
3 For example, Grusners Citation1775, 63; Heyer Citation1828, 27; von Reisach and Linde Citation1835, 4; and others.
4 In the second half of the 13th century, both the wife of Gerlach, Count of Limburg, and one of his daughters, who was later married to Adolf, Count of Nassau, were named Imagina. The daughter is named as Imagina in 1279 (Anonymous Citation1830, 104–106, nos 1, 2), while her mother (daughter of Heinrich, Count of Blieskastel), and Agnes von Sayn, are recorded as Ymagina in 1266 (Lacomblet Citation1846, 329, no. 565). Adolf also apparently had a sister named Imagina (von Behr Citation1870, 98, table XCVIII). These are not the only instances that can be found in 13th century German or Netherlandish contexts.
5 Though Innogenis is more likely to be misread as Irmagenis or Irmogenis than Imogenis, since “nn” and “rm” share the same number of vertical strokes, while “m” has one fewer.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sara L. Uckelman
Sara L. Uckelman works at Durham University and is the editor-in-chief of the Dictionary of Medieval Names from European Sources. Her interests include the personal and place names of pre-1600 Europe, as well the effects of medieval naming practices on contemporary fantasy fiction.