Juliet

The name was borne by several saints and medieval noblewomen, but its literary destiny was sealed by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, first performed around 1597.

Shakespeare drew on Arthur Brooke’s poem The Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet (1562), which in turn derived from Matteo Bandello’s Italian novella (1554) and ultimately from Luigi da Porto’s Historia novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti

(1530), set in Verona.

Shakespeare’s Juliet is only 13 years old in the play, yet she speaks some of the most celebrated lines in English literature.

The play’s global reach has made Juliet 1 of the most recognizable feminine names in world literature. Gounod’s opera Roméo et Juliette (1867), Tchaikovsky’s fantasy overture (1869), and Prokofiev’s ballet (1935) extended the character into music.

The house on Via Cappello in Verona, reputed to be Juliet’s, receives hundreds of thousands of visitors annually and houses the Club di Giulietta, which answers letters addressed to her from around the world.

Across the United States, Juliet has appeared in SSA records since 1880 but remained uncommon for most of the 20th century, overshadowed by the more frequent Juliette and Julia.

It re-entered the top 1000 in 1983 and climbed steadily, entering the top 300 in the 2010s. The name is well established in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, and the Italian Giulietta remains common in Italy.

Contemporary bearers include British actress Juliet Stevenson, American singer Juliet Simms, and novelist Juliet Grames.