answers.input_text: short
answers.span_text: Juliet
questions: who says that which we call a rose
name: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
contexts: `` A rose by any other name would smell as sweet '' is a popular reference to William Shakespeare 's play Romeo and Juliet , in which Juliet seems to argue that it does not matter that Romeo is from her family 's rival house of Montague , that is , that he is named `` Montague '' . The reference is often used to imply that the names of things do not affect what they really are . This formulation is , however , a paraphrase of Shakespeare 's actual language . Juliet compares Romeo to a rose saying that if he was not named Romeo he would still be handsome and be Juliet 's love . This states that if he was not Romeo , then he would not be a Montague and she would be able to get married with no problem at all .