The numbering of Shakespeare’s sonnets is because that was the order in which they appeared in the 1609 publication of the collection. It is possible that Shakespeare himself never named any of the poems and that they have simply become known for their first lines because of that. We do not know exactly why they do not have titles in the traditional sense, but the numbering also does not correspond to narrative chronology or date of writing. This is one of the many topics of debate that surrounds the work of William Shakespeare.