'YOUR KIDS WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE YOU EVER': Shakespeare-obsessed pregnant woman wants to name her twins Romeo and Juliet, much to the horror of her husband and best friend

Author image for Emmy Pratt
Emmy Pratt • Writer and Editor
Mar 14, 2025 8:00 PM EDT

There are so many ways that naming your kids can go wrong. Obviously, there are names that you wouldn't want to give a kid individually (Iago, Adolph, Ebenezer, etc), but naming all of your kids related things can be a whole different can of worms. If done well, your kids could be like the three sisters I went to school with named Grace, Faith, and Trinity (Trinity being the 3rd born daughter). Honestly, those sibling names are so iconic to me. I would shake their parents' hands and tell them, "job well done." If done poorly, your life could be the play Topdog Underdog, starring two brothers, one named Lincoln and one named Booth. Let's say that things go just about as you'd expect for that pair. There is one taboo in naming that is so wild, so detrimental to the lives of the children, that you would think even the most creative parents wouldn't touch it with a ten-foot pole. 

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  • Unfortunately, some parents are willing to commit the taboo act of naming their children after famous lovers. The expecting mother in this story really wants to name her girl-boy twins after Romeo and Juliet, much to the disgust and horror of her husband and her best friend.

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    Cheezburger Image 10480088064
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    Wife wants to name our twins Romeo and Juliet

    My wife is a huge Shakespeare fan, and she loves the idea of naming the twins Romeo and Juliet. I'm against it, I can't get over the idea of naming our kids after a fictional couple who di .I do really like the name Juliet, I even suggested that if we go with Juliet, maybe we could name our son Tybalt after Juliet's cousin. She insists that if we use Juliet, we have to use Romeo.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    I'll admit Romeo and Juliet is one of the only Shakespeare plays I've read, but I've tried to look online for some other Shakespearean sibling names we could use, like Ophelia and Laertes from Hamlet or Claudio and
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    Isabella from Much Ado About Nothing. She hasn't liked any of them because either their source isn't serious enough or the names aren't recognizable/famous as Shakespearean.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    RVE JOHNSON 150 STEEVRY HAKSPEAR HARPEN PROLEGOT
    via Julian Nortoft

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    She's really stuck on this. On their own, I think they're lovely, but I don't think they work for twins. Is there a way I can convince her this is a bad idea, or does anyone have other Shakespearean name suggestions that might win her over? I'm not sure if I'm
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    overthinking the meaning behind the names and being weird about it, but I can't talk with anyone about this because she wants the twins' names to be a surprise.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    Cheezburger Image 10480089344
    via Getty Images (Unsplash+)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

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    _missgiggles Naming twins after famous lovers?? It's not good, don't do it!
    via u/_missgiggles
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    Sorry-Salamander570 YOUR KIDS WILL NEVER EVER EVER FORGIVE YOU EVER, ITS STUPID
    via u/Sorry-Salamander570
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    DeliciousBuffalo69 Especially because the names Sebastian and Viola exist and still hold up very well.
    via u/DeliciousBuffalo69
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    CaptainBenson Right?! I was going to say this one. Plus all the millennial parents will recognize it from she's the man, even if they don't know Shakespeare
    via u/CaptainBenson
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    bigbirdlooking Twins are individual people and future adults, not your accessories. Please have her speak to actual adult twins.
    via u/bigbirdlooking
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    Update: Wife wants to name our twins Romeo and Juliet

    Thanks for all the comments and name suggestions. I didn't want to speak badly about my wife, but yes, I'm well aware of how deranged it is to name a pair of siblings after a fictional couple, and I was too much of a coward to bring up the original post. thing in my
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    In defence of my wife, her pregnancy has been very hard on her. It's her first, and naming the kids is the only thing she's seemed happy about these days. For context, she's seen the Romeo and Juliet play in person and is an avid reader of plays in general, but she's always liked Shakespeare most because they were the ones she studied. A few
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    years ago, she even ran a Shakespeare club for kids at the local library. More recently, she was rereading the play and suggested we name the kids after the main characters. I was taken aback and told her we'd sleep on it, but the following day, it was all she'd talk about, and she was so happy I didn't have the heart to talk her out of it.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    She became more and more fixated on it as the weeks went on. After making this post, I asked her again why it had to be these two names. She told me she always liked symbolic meanings and grand declarations of love, and she wanted that sort of bond to carry over to the kids in a
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    family sense. She also mentioned that out of all the plays she'd read, Romeo and Juliet was the most iconic, that people would be able to recognise them and that it would make it easier to talk to other parents if they asked why the kids were named Romeo and Juliet.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    I sat on this for a few days. And honestly, it felt like I didn't know her. I pray this is her pregnancy brain talking, but this isn't her. She's always been a romantic and fixates on trends/ideas but this is just weird. Yesterday, I finally told her point-blank that we were not naming our kids after such a famous couple under any circumstances, and I showed her this thread.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    She refused to look at it and broke down. My wife asked me why I couldn't just let her have this. Some suggested she needed to hear how crazy she was from someone who wasn't me, so I told her best friend what was happening, and she was more horrified than I was ― how I probably should have reacted.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    Her best friend came over after work, and I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I know they watched the 1968 movie version of Romeo and Juliet together, which I've been told has a s scene. I think that snapped some sense into my wife. Her friend left a few hours ago, and my wife's been quiet, but she asked if we could look over the names I'd picked out again.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    Thanks again for all the comments; I think we both needed reality slapped into us, her from her delusion and me from my apparent lack of common sense. She's still de_d set on something Shakespear/theatre-related and somewhat matching, but now that her head is clearer, I hope we can pick something better. From
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    the quick read of the comments | showed her, she did like the name Sebastian, but she's on the fence about Viola. I'll let her off the hook for now since she's so sick, but once we're back to normal life, I'm not letting her forget this happened. I'll update this again once we finally have names picked out.
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    PerpetuallyLurking • 19h ago HI, if you've got her settled on Sebastian then there's absolutely no reason you can't let her have Juliet, IMO. It's just Romeo and Juliet together that's a problem. Separated, they're fine.
    via u/PerpetuallyLurking
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    PenelopeLumley It's just Romeo and Juliet together that's a problem. Separated, they're fine. That's just what their families thought, too.
    via u/PenelopeLumley
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    Cautious-Disaster-87 seb & jules are such cute nicknames together
    via u/Cautious-Disaster-87
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    EliG028 The way you're talking about your part it in this paired with you saying you're not gonna let her forget this is raising some questions for me. You realize that you fumbled the bag here too right? Like not just because you didn't say anything initially, but you let her get excited about the names for weeks. You let her think you were okay with the names and build hope and you build up your frustrations until you finally spoke up but sounds like you were harsh about it for what? She
    via u/EliG028
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    didn't see the problems the names would cause and when it was brought to her attention by her friend she did the right thing and changed her mind. She did the right thing and you still sound like you have anger towards her when it's nobodies fault but yours that you didn't voice your concerns for weeks and instead pushed her friend to do it for you.
    via u/EliG028
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    RopePsychological567 OP I'm not sure I worded it well. But she's been very sick during this whole thing, not able to eat regularly, not sleeping, horrible cramps, etc. Naming the kids was the only thing she seemed really excited about, because the actual pregnancy hasn't been good for her. We agreed that she would get the ultimate say in the names because she's carrying the kids. I didn't want to burst her bubble when she first got this idea, but as the weeks went on, I realised how serious it
    via u/RopePsychological567
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    was. I'm not mad at her for the choice, I'm mad more at myself for not doing anything about it, and at both of us for not realising what it could do to our kid's future. But I shouldn't have waited so long to speak with her. The last comment was that if we ever have kids again, I hope she won't want to name them after a couple again; not meant maliciously, but I see I didn't say that well either.
    via u/RopePsychological567

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baby names pregnancy best friends shakespeare parenting william shakespeare dad bad name names pregnant naming mom name romeo and juliet
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