The Bard didn't just enrich English culture as such with his plays (and added the odd word or so to the English language), his plays also inspired (or re-popularized) a whole number of names ... and other authors were only too happy to take up the baton (if their own parents hadn't done so first, that is, and given them a Shakespearean name in the first place). So let's bring them together here -- please keep to the somewhat less usual names, though ... for the Bard's plays are also a fair collection of virtually every frequently-used name out there, so if we were to include all Johns, Jacks, Edwards, Georges, Julias, Margarets and Katherines that ever drew (fictional) breath or put pen to paper, this list would be absolutely endless!

(Note: First names only -- so no Quicklies, Fords, Falstaffs or, for that matter, Porters -- and this is NOT about Shakespeare's plays as such; nor, for that matter, about the actual persons or classical sources he used. So please stick to books written AFTER Shakespeare's lifetime by someone, or prominently featuring a character, who bears the name of a Shakespearean character!)