WHERE ART THOU ROMEO? If you're looking for a literary name for your baby, take some inspiration from The Bard himself.

While in the park with my son last week, I heard a mother calling out to her little girl, whose name was Octavia. Octavia! What a great name! It sounded familiar yet I couldn't work out where I'd heard it before. Thanks to Google, I discovered that Octavia is a character from one of William Shakespeare's plays, Antony and Cleopatra. No wonder I was having high school English flashbacks.

It got me wondering what other hidden gems exist within Shakespeare's numerous works, so I had a look through his tomes.

If you're looking for a literary name for your baby but aren't really a fan of the trendy Harper or Atticus (both inspired by the novel To kill a Mockingbird), why not take some inspiration from The Bard himself.

Romeo and Juliet

Girls: Juliet, Rosaline

Boys: Laurence, Paris, Romeo, Sampson

Hamlet

Girl: Ophelia

Boy: Marcellus

Othello

Girls: Bianca, Desdemona, Emilia

Boy: Cassio

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Girls: Helena, Titania

Boys: Lysander, Robin

Twelfth Night

Girls: Olivia, Viola

Boys: Sebastian, Toby, Valentine

Macbeth

Boys: Angus, Lennox, Malcolm

The Merchant of Venice

Girls: Jessica, Nerissa, Portia

Boys: Leonardo, Lorenzo

The Taming of the Shrew

Girl: Katherina/Katherine (Kate)

Boys: Curtis, Nathaniel

As You Like It

Girls: Audrey, Celia, Phebe, Rosalind

Boys: Charles, Jaques, Oliver, Orlando

King Lear

Girls: Cordelia, Regan

Boys: Edmund, Oswald

Much Ado about Nothing

Girls: Beatrice, Hero, Ursula

Boys: Francis, Leonato

The Tempest

Girls: Ariel, Iris, Miranda

Boy: Alonso

Two Gentleman of Verona

Girls: Julia, Lucetta, Silvia

Boy: Antonio

Measure for Measure

Girls: Isabella, Mariana,

Boys: Claudio, Lucio

The Winter's Tale

Girls: Hermione, Paulina

Boys: Camillo, Dion

Antony and Cleopatra

Girls: Alexas, Cleopatra, Charmian, Iras, Octavia

Boys: Antony, Demetrius, Taurus

Titus Andronicus

Girls: Lavinia, Tamora

Boys: Aaron, Lucius, Marcus, Quintus, Titus