Imogen West Knights

Did Shakespeare invent my name?

When I was a child, if people asked me where my name came from, I answered “Shakespeare” with an air of precocious pride that was probably revolting. There I was, stomping around in my pigtails bearing a name invented in our nation’s most revered creative mind. A Daisy, are you? Lily? Flower names. That’s nice, I thought. My name is literature.

It was also unusual. I knew only one other Imogen. She was a girl who went to my church and was known as Imogen Lucy to my Imogen Amy, but outside of church we both went by Imo and could therefore be friends. (There is an unwritten rule of being an Imogen: there are Immys and there are Imos, and our enmity is mortal.)

In my teens, I discovered that Imogen was a character in a play called Cymbeline, the daughter of the eponymous king of Ancient Britain. Then I did an English degree and stumbled upon a piece of disquieting information. My literary name, in which I had so much pride, was not in fact invented by Shakespeare.