--- title: Romeo and Juliet Viral Babies description: Two couples welcomed infants at the same hospital—and named them separately after Shakespeare's iconic star-crossed characters. canonical: https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-22T18:20:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:42:07.178Z og:title: These Babies Named Romeo and Juliet Are Destined to Wed og:description: Two South Carolina couples welcomed newborns with fateful Shakespearean names. og:url: https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Babies Named Romeo and Juliet Are Destined to Wed twitter:description: Two South Carolina couples welcomed newborns with fateful Shakespearean names. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # People Already Want These Babies Named Romeo and Juliet to Get Married  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 22, 2017 6:20 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Mar 22, 2017 6:20 PM UTC It’s hard to tell if they’ll grow up into star-crossed lovers, but for now, newborns [Romeo and Juliet](http://time.com/3770370/romeo-juliet-dinosaurs/) are getting plenty of attention with their fatefully Shakespearean names. The two infants were born just hours apart at the same Bluffton, South Carolina hospital to two separate couples, neither of whom were aware of the other’s delightfully [poetic name choice](http://time.com/vault/issue/1996-11-04/spread/132/) until the hospital’s newborn photographer [Cassie Clayshulte](http://www.cassieclayshultephotography.com/) happened to snap both babies while they were adorably snoozing. As far as Clayshulte was able to confirm, the two families—Morgan and Edwin Hernandez, parents to Romeo; and Christiana and Allan Shifflett, parents to Juliet—don’t currently hold an ancient, violent grudge against each other, luckily. So the new Romeo and Juliet’s future looks brighter than that of their literary counterparts. “Both parents had picked these names out early on in their pregnancies and neither couple knew each other until they met today,” the photographer wrote in a Facebook post with pictures of the newborns. “Both babies have full heads of hair and already make the cutest couple!” And as Clayshulte [told USA Today](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/03/22/newborn-babies-named-romeo-and-juliet-born-hours-apart-sc/99483902/), they’re already hoping for a bit of romantic intrigue in their futures. “We’ve already made jokes they need an arranged marriage,” she said. “I had told them that if they want to book me now as their wedding photographer, they could do that.” That would be a far cry from the secretive Montague-Capulet tryst of lore. Here’s to finding a better end to their story than that of Shakespeare’s ill-fated pair. Romeo and Juliet Viral Babies ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/"},"headline":"People Already Want These Babies Named Romeo and Juliet to Get Married","datePublished":"2017-03-22T18:20:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:42:07.178Z","description":"Two South Carolina couples welcomed newborns with fateful names.","url":"https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4709058/romeo-juliet-babies/","name":"People Already Want These Babies Named Romeo and Juliet to Get Married"}}]}] ```