Shakespeare didn’t think names were important. The Ninth Circuit, however, disagrees with the Bard. by John Canoni. August 02, 2005 Shakespeare didn't think names were important. In Romeo and Juliet, he observed “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The Ninth Circuit, however, disagrees with the Bard. In El-Hakem v. BJY, Inc.,[1] the court upheld a jury verdict against an engineering firm CEO who insisted on calling an Arab employee, Mamdouh El-Hakem, “Manny” and “Hank” despite El-Hakem’s strenuous objections over a period of almost a year. The CEO, Gregg Young, asserted a “Western”...