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Though Taylor Swift often writes about her personal life, she tends to leave names out of it. She is much more likely to leave clues for her eagle-eyed fans to interpret. Based on these clues, fans have determined which songs are about which of her ex-boyfriends, including Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Harry Styles, and Jake Gyllenhaal. She has also written many songs about her current boyfriend, actor Joe Alwyn.
Since Scooter Braun sold Taylor's masters, she has been re-recording and re-releasing her own versions of her past albums. These re-releases have allowed fans to revisit the stories and people that were Taylor’s inspirations for these songs. In a few of these songs, Taylor has strayed from her pattern of being discreet and actually mentioned specific names in the lyrics. She has also mentioned additional names on her newer folklore and evermore albums. Continue reading to find out what names she mentions and why she mentions them.
10 Tim McGraw In "Tim McGraw"
Taylor opened her debut self-titled album with a song named after country singer Tim McGraw. She wrote this song as a high school freshman during her math class. She sings about how she wanted her then boyfriend to remember her by her favorite Tim McGraw song, "Can't Tell Me Nothin'," after he moved away for college. On her reputation tour, she got to perform "Tim McGraw" with Tim and his wife Faith Hill.
9 Drew In "Teardrops On My Guitar"
In the heartbreaking song "Teardrops On My Guitar," Taylor sings about her crush on a classmate named Drew Dunlap. She talks about how Drew would talk to her about his girlfriend and how she desperately wanted to be his girlfriend herself. In 2015, Dunlap was arrested for child abuse, so it's safe to say she was better off without him anyway.
8 Cory In "Stay Beautiful"
Taylor mentioned quite a few names on her debut album. She has another song called "Stay Beautiful" where she sings about a guy named Cory. She sings, "Cory's eyes are like a jungle / He smiles, it's like the radio." Despite seeming completely infatuated with him, she didn't actually date Cory. Taylor admitted, "This is a song I wrote about a guy I never dated."
7 Stephen In "Hey Stephen"
On her sophomore album, Fearless, Taylor wrote a song called "Hey Stephen." Stephen is actually Stephen Barker Liles from Love and Theft, the group that opened for her on her Fearless tour. She told Philadelphia Magazine, "This is a guy I had a crush on. I wrote about all these reasons he should be with me instead of other girls." Stephen responded to this song with his own "Try To Make It Anyway."
6 John In "Dear John"
On Speak Now, Taylor's song "Dear John" is about her ex-boyfriend John Mayer. Given that there was a 12-year age gap between the pair, Taylor expresses how she felt that John took advantage of her youth and innocence during their relationship. She sings, "Don't you think I was too young to be messed with?" In 2013, John responded to Taylor on his song "Paper Doll."
5 Rebekah In "The Last Great American Dynasty"
On her folklore album, Taylor sings about Rebekah Harkness, the socialite and founder of the Harkness Ballet, who previously owned the mansion in Rhode Island (AKA "Holiday House") that Taylor now owns. Taylor writes about how she relates to the judgement that Rebekah faced from others for her personality and grand parties.
4 Betty, Inez, And James In "Betty"
A few of the songs from Taylor's folklore album were based on a teenage love triangle that Taylor created. The love triangle involves James and this song's titular character, Betty. This song also mentions a character named Inez. Many fans know that Blake Lively and Taylor Swift are best friends (especially given that Blake has been a guest at Taylor's "Holiday House" parties), so it was fitting that Taylor named the characters in this song after Blake's three daughters with Ryan Reynolds.
3 Dorothea In "Dorothea"
Dorothea was the first song that Taylor wrote for her evermore album. Though there are many theories as to how Taylor got the name, there is one rumor that the name comes from Dorothea West. In 1938, a girl named Marjorie West went missing in Pennsylvania, and her sister's name was Dorothea. Given Taylor's Pennsylvania roots and her other song named "marjorie," Taylor could have been alluding to this tragedy.
2 Marjorie In "Marjorie"
"marjorie" is about Taylor's late grandmother Marjorie Finlay. Marjorie was an opera singer, and she was part of the reason Taylor decided to become a singer herself. Taylor has explained that the process of creating this track was "emotional" for her. She said, "one of the hardest forms of regret to sort of work through is the regret of being so young when you lost someone that you didn't have the perspective to learn and appreciate who they were fully."
1 Este In "No Body, No Crime"
"no body, no crime" is a love triangle murder mystery song that Taylor sings with HAIM. Taylor is very close with the Haim sisters, and she chose to name the song's main character after Este Haim. She even mentions Este's favorite chain restaurant, Olive Garden, in the lyrics. Taylor did not ask the sisters to sing on the song until after she had written the lyrics herself.
