I love a good Shakespearean play — I always walk away from one wanting to speak like he wrote, trying and failing miserably.

• Desdemona – Greek, “ill-fated” (Othello); symbolizes purity and tragic innocence

• Octavius – Latin, “eighth-born” (Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra); represents leadership and pragmatism

• Apemantus – Greek, “feeling no pain” (Timon of Athens); a churlish, cynical philosopher who warns Timon against false friends

• Alcibiades – Greek, from alke (strength/prowess) + bia (force) (Timon of Athens); a real Athenian general — in the play, Timon’s final champion

• Horatio – Latin, possibly from hora “timekeeper” (Hamlet); symbolizes loyalty and reason

• Rosencrantz – Germanic, “wreath of roses” (Hamlet); names of real Danish noble families — Shakespeare borrowed them for his sycophantic courtiers

• Guildenstern – Germanic, “golden star” (Hamlet); paired eternally with Rosencrantz — see also Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

• Archidamus – Greek, archi (master/chief) + demos (people) (The Winter’s Tale); a minor Spartan king, borrowed from real Greek history

• Mercutio – Latin, from Mercury, god of speed and wit (Romeo and Juliet); quicksilver, unpredictable, the most electric character in the play

• Caliban – possibly from “cannibal” or Romany cauliban meaning “blackness” (The Tempest); the savage and enslaved, one of Shakespeare’s most debated characters
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