What Do You Call Your Man? 10 Ways to Improve on “Boyfriend”

From her balcony, Juliet soliloquizes, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet,” thus lamenting that her Capulet surname doesn’t pair well with Romeo’s Montague. According to those labels, they’re chocolate and oysters, not a Reese’s Cup.

When it comes to relationship labels, though, Juliet would have no trouble. The hottie from the ball quickly becomes her boyfriend, and she his girlfriend. These terms are appropriate because, according to Shakespeare, Juliet is a mere bat mitzvah-ready thirteen, and Romeo might have his driver’s license, but he probably couldn’t vote. Then, within twenty-four hours, the labels change as the couple goes to being fiance/fiancee to being husband/wife. Or, as the old-timey wedding ceremony went “man and wife,” because the man still remained a man and the wife was now his property.