Much Ado About Nothing follows in the tradition of Shakespeare's other seventeenth-century comedies, in that its title is playful, ambiguous, and irreverent. One might compare it to As You Like It or the original title for Twelfth Night, What You Will. These titles denote a certain whimsicality and flippancy to the performances by providing little information about what might actually happen.
But the title of Much Ado About Nothing (colloquially shortened to simply Much Ado) is in actuality an accurate description of the events of the play: characters find themselves exaggerating problems and worries over things that are essentially meaningless (or at least of minor importance). This element of the play reflects the fact that the majority of the characters are portrayed as self-absorbed young lovers who have yet to be humbled by experience or old age.
Crucially, however, the word "nothing" in early modern English would have been pronounced the same way as the word "noting," a term that denotes looking, reading, observing, interpreting, etc. This is an important pun in the title, as it underscores the extent to which the play is invested in perception. Characters frequently "note" one another in presumptuous or downright inaccurate ways, meaning that the play presents the follies of mis-noting that come with placing importance on reputation alone.
Finally, the word "nothing" was also, at the time, a slang term for "vagina." This historical context comments on the way the play's male characters express anxiety and worry over the notion of marriage and what it could mean for their sense of power and control. In the end, the play delights in expectations set upon both genders and subtly mocks the notion of prescribed gender roles in marriage.
