Every Name in the Complete Works of Shakespeare That 'Sounds Black'
About a year ago, I saw a friend perform in a production of William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, and it occurred to me that there are a lot of black-sounding names in that play: Berowne, Jaquenetta, Dumaine, et al. It took until now for me to be bored enough to realize that I should probably go through the complete works of Shakespeare and come up with a list of all the black-sounding names in all of his plays. Today, I bring you the fruits of my ‘labour’.
I omitted some names that, though conceivable as a black person’s name, were just too far of a stretch, too much of a mouthful for anyone (‘Mamillius’, ‘Marullus’, among others). The list below is comprised of only names that I could hear as a black person’s actual name (or rap name, as in the case of ‘Lord Scroop’) and not bat an eye. If you think that I wrongfully omitted any, please let me know.
I should mention that I am uniquely qualified to put together this list because I’ve lived in Brooklyn, New York all of my life, and I went to an overcrowded Middle School that was 95% black. I could show you a yearbook that would make your head spin. So please, don’t come at me if your only exposure to black names is watching basketball and football on TV, or a couple ‘Key and Peele’ sketches. Fellow true scholars only.
This should go without saying, but just in case this Substack piece gets in front of eyes beyond my own, I am not racist, and I am not even ‘making fun’ of black-sounding names here. This is all in good fun, and will hopefully only serve to get more attention on the bard. (By ‘the bard’ I mean me, of course—who else?)
And so, with all of that out of the way, and without further ado (about nothing) here is every name in the complete works of Shakespeare that sounds black, along with the play that it comes from. (Some names were used in multiple plays—in the case of those, I just listed one of the plays that they were in.)
Every Name in the Complete Works of Shakespeare That Sounds Black
Adriana (Comedy of Errors)
Alexas (Antony and Cleopatra)
Alonso (Tempest)
Angelo (Measure for Measure)
Antony (Antony and Cleopatra)
Banquo (Macbeth)
Baptista (Taming of the Shrew)
Barnardine (Measure for Measure)
Bawd (Pericles)
Beadle (Henry VI)
Berowne (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Belarius (Cymbeline)
Benedick (Much Ado About Nothing)
Bernardo (Hamlet)
Biron (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Blunt (Richard III)
Boatswain (Tempest)
Boyet (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Camillo (Winter’s Tale)
Cassio (Othello)
Chamberlain (Henry IV)
Charmain (Antony and Cleopatra)
Chiron (Titus)
Christopher Sly (Taming of the Shrew)
Cleon (Pericles)
Cleopatra (Antony and Cleopatra)
Commons (Henry VI)
Cornelius (Hamlet)
Costard (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Cupid (Timon of Athens)
Dardanius (Julius Caesar)
Demetrius (Antony and Cleopatra)
Desdemona (Othello)
Dion (Winter’s Tale)
Don Adriano (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Don John (Much Ado About Nothing)
Donalbain (Macbeth)
Dumaine (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Eglamour (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Fenton (Merry Wives of Windsor)
Flavius (Julius Caesar)
Fleance (Macbeth)
Grandpre (Henry V)
Harcourt (Henry IV)
Jamy (Henry V)
Jaquenetta (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Junius (Coriolanus)
Jupiter (Cymbeline)
Lavinia (Titus)
Lennox (Macbeth)
Leontes (Winter’s Tale)
Lewis the Dauphin (Henry V)
Ligarius (Julius Caesar)
Longaville (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Lord Mowbray (Henry IV)
Lord Ross (Richard II)
Lord Scroop (Henry V)
Luce (Comedy of Errors)
Lucetta (Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Luciana (Comedy of Errors)
Lucius (Julius Caesar)
Macmorris (Henry V)
Marcellus (Hamlet)
Mariana (All’s Well That Ends Well)
Martius (Titus Andronicus)
Marullus (Julius Caesar)
Menteith (Macbeth)
Mercade (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Messala (Julius Caesar)
Nerissa (Merchant of Venice)
Oberon (Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Octavia (Antony and Cleopatra)
Octavius (Antony and Cleopatra)
Orlando (As You Like It)
Osric (Hamlet)
Patience (Henry VIII)
Phebe (As You Like It)
Philemon (Pericles)
Pindarus (Julius Caesar)
Player (Taming of the Shrew)
Player King (Hamlet)
Player Queen (Hamlet)
Pompey (Antony and Cleopatra)
Pursuivant (Richard III)
Quince (Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Quintus (Titus)
Reynaldo (Hamlet)
Romeo (Romeo and Juliet)
Rosaline (Love’s Labour’s Lost)
Sampson (Romeo and Juliet)
Saturninus (Titus)
Seyton (Macbeth)
Siward (Macbeth)
Tamora (Titus)
Taurus (Antony and Cleopatra)
Thaisa (Pericles)
Thaliard (Pericles)
Timandra (Timon of Athens)
Tintinius (Julius Caesar)
Titania (Midsummer Night’s Dream)
Travers (Henry IV)
Trebonius (Julius Caesar)
Valentine (12th Night)
Varrius (Antony and Cleopatra)
Vernon (Henry IV)
Viola (12th Night)
Virgilia (Coriolanus)
Woodvile (Henry VI)
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