Here Are All The Names In The Tortured Poets Department

In the song “The Tortured Poets Department,” track 2 on the album, Swift sings about dating a tortured artist type who forgets his literal typewriter at her apartment. In the third verse, she shares two names:

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me / But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave / And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen / Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be / ’Cause we’re crazy.”

This approach to a name reveal — using the moniker on a character who isn’t really good or bad — is exactly how Swift unveiled Betty’s name to the world. Considering the fact that they’ve had three girls, I’m tempted to believe the couple’s youngest is a daughter, too — and that her name, if Taylor is any indicator, is Lucy.

Again, this name follows right on Lucy’s heels in “The Tortured Poets Department.” Lively and Reynolds have never revealed whether their fourth baby was a boy or a girl, so all names on Swift’s new album are fair game (and Jack would be a very cute, classic choice if their fourth is a boy).

Celebrities love a bird baby name (looking at Chrissy Teigen, who welcomed baby Wren in 2023). Swift has a track titled “Robin” in her latest album, and it’s a melancholy glimpse into what it’s like to be an innocent child without all the big worries of the world yet. So, is this a name on T. Swift’s album? Yes. Is it the name on her album? Hard to say.

“But Daddy I Love Him” is sort of an ode to that reckless I-don’t-care feeling you have when you’re young and in love with the wrong guy, and no one seems to get it (it’s you who doesn’t, of course). In it, Swift throws a jab at perfect, prim daughters, the “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best/ Clutching their pearls, sighing, ‘What a mess.’” Sarah and Hannah may have been popular in our generation but aren’t so much now, and would be unlike Taylor to bring up her besties’ baby’s name in any negative context, so I think we can rule these out.

In the song “Cassandra,” Swift sings about a girl targeted in an angry riot, whose truth is never heard (basically, it’s a retelling of her KimYe saga). Swifties online have posited that the name used in the song is derived from Greek mythology. Cassandra was a princess of Troy who had the gift of foresight. She agreed to marry the god Apollo, but reneged and he cursed her as a result. When she tries to warn her people not to accept that infamous giant horse from the Greeks, they ignore her and call her crazy. Which, yeah, kind of sounds like what unfolded between Kim, Kanye, and Taylor.

Again, an entire song named after a person, or in this case, a character (Peter Pan). “Peter” is a song about being with someone who has some growing up to do, who promised to go do just that and rekindle things when he was ready, but never does. Since being the boy who never grows up is, in this scenario, a bad thing, I wouldn’t place money on this baby Baby Reynolds’ name.

Swift’s new album includes a song titled “Clara Bow,” an American silent film actress in the 1920s. So, who’s to say Clara isn’t Blake and Ryan’s youngest’s name? We know the couple loves their timeless monikers.

She also mentions Stevie Nicks in “Clara Bow” as another woman who achieved stardom and had a signature look record companies hoped to recreate in younger stars.

Swift also name drops a couple other famous figures in “The Tortured Poets Department,” Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, so their names aren’t off the table, either. She also makes mention of the Chelsea Hotel, which hey, makes that name an option too.

In “The Prophecy,” Swift sings about having another failed relationship and questioning the powers that be about when she’ll find the one. And you guessed it: She invokes a name. “I got cursed like Eve, got bitten / Oh, was it punishment?” Eve doesn’t quite fit with the vibe of the other Reynolds-Lively siblings’ names, but it’s not out of the question, either.

This sequence of names is quite literally the title of one of Swift’s new songs — track 20, to be specific. It’s about a mysterious ex of Swift’s who apparently didn’t do so hot at monogamy and had something on the side with “Chloe, Sam, Sophia, or Marcus.” Chances are Swift wouldn’t reference her bestie’s baby in this way, so it’s doubtful any of these names are the name.

It’s also highly unlikely this is Baby Reynolds-Lively’s name, but rather an easy pseudonym for Swift to use on this blatant diss track. You see, in the song “thanK you aIMee,” Swift is pretty clearly shading Kim Kardashian, adding one more layer to their long-standing beef.