It was discovered on 12 October 1983, by American astronomer Edward Bowell at Lowell's Anderson Mesa Station near Flagstaff, Arizona, and later named after William Shakespeare.

[2][9] The presumed S-type asteroid has a rotation period of 6.1 hours and measures approximately 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) in diameter.

It orbits the Sun in the outer main-belt at a distance of 2.7–3.0 AU once every 4 years and 10 months (1,756 days).

[9] This minor planet was named after William Shakespeare (1564–1616), the English renaissance dramatist and poet.

[6][7][8] According to the space-based NEOWISE mission of NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, the body has an albedo of 0.26 and measures 10.5 kilometers in diameter,[4][5] while the Collaborative Asteroid Lightcurve Link assumes a standard albedo for members of the Koronis family of 0.24 and calculates a diameter of 10.3 kilometers with an absolute magnitude of 12.1.