Let’s talk about the surname, or lack thereof, of the British Royal Family.

The Royal Houses

So what is the surname the royals use? We all know them pretty well by their first names, but what do they use on official paperwork?

Well if you’re a part of the British Royal Family, it actually turns out that you kinda get to choose your own surname, if you want to use one at all. Which means they don’t all go by the same one. And really, we don’t need to distinguish them from their peasant counterparts, as a Business Insider article so articulately explains:

They’re so famous that they’re easily identifiable without [a surname].

It might be surprising to learn that pre-1917, the Royal Family didn’t actually have an official surname. Instead they went by the name of the house or dynasty that they belonged to. Here’s what the official royal website has to say:

Kings and Princes were historically known by the names of the countries over which they and their families ruled.

Which explains why you often see royals signing attendance books with just their first name, or the country they’re from. For example, Philip of Greece, or Felipe of Spain.

The dynasty name of the ruling family would often change if one dynasty was ousted by a rival family. Like the Lancastrians and the Yorks or the Tudors.

The same thing happened if the ruling family changed through a female member. Like the Stuarts or the Hanoverians.

Much like an average person getting their surname from their father, the same thing would happen with the ‘House’ name of the royal family. So Edward VII, the son of Queen Vic and Prince Albert, was a part of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha were, and I suppose still are, a German dynasty, and when Prince Albert married Queen Victoria he brought this house name with him. 

And when Edward’s son, George V became King, he was the second of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to be on the British throne in 1910.

Windsor with a hyphen

1917 was the year everything changed. Because of the First World War and people not being the biggest fan of the Germans or being reminded that the British Royal Family was essentially German, George V decided to change the name of his House to that of Windsor.

Windsor was chosen because it was quintessentially British, and was taken from the Castle of the same name.

This was all decided at a meeting of the all important Privy Council on the 17 July, 1917. George V even adopted the name Windsor as his family’s surname. This is what he had to say about the occasion:

All descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the name of Windsor.

And good old Liz kept this as the Royal Family name when she ascended to the throne in 1952.

But when 1960 rolled around, things changed once again, but only slightly this time. The late Duke of Edinburgh wasn’t a big fan of being

…the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his children!

That’s a direct quote. And so the Queen decided that their direct descendants would have a slightly different House name, in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of the Royal Family.

And so, with Windsor still the apart of the Royal surname:

It was therefore declared in the Privy Council that the Queen’s descendants, other than those with the style of Royal Highness and title of Prince/Princess, or female descendants who marry, would carry the name of Mountbatten-Windsor.

This new Family name is a very modern hyphen of both the Duke’s and the Queen’s surnames.

So originally born as a Prince of Greece, Philip actually had to give up his claim to the Greek throne when he married Queen Liz. And then adopted his mother’s family name of Mountbatten, which he continued to use in the Navy.

Therefore if any direct descendants of the Queen need a surname, it’s expected that they will use Mountbatten-Windsor. And it first appeared in use when Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips, you can see the surname, Mountbatten-Windsor, in the marriage register at Westminster Abbey for the 14 November 1973.

But this use of the name, isn’t exactly a law. It’s a proclamation made by the reigning monarch. Because it didn’t come as an Act of Parliament, it’s more kind of like a suggestion of the Queen and the Duke’s wishes in regards to a surname.

And because a proclamation isn’t set in stone, it means that the next reigning monarch, so Prince Charles or even William, when they become King, they can change the rules.

And the evidence that this wish of the Queen and the Duke is just a hope on their behalf, can be seen in the names Prince William and Harry went by, both at school and in the military. So because their father, Prince Charles, is the Prince of Wales, they took Wales as their surname. And the same thing has happened with young George, because his parents, Will and Kate, are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, George goes by, George Cambridge at school.

But Harry was happy to use the surname designated by the Queen, when his and Meghan’s son, Archie, was born. And that’s why Archie is Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. He doesn’t have an HRH title and is a direct descendant from the Queen and Prince Philip and so is well within his rights to use the royal surname.

So does the British Royal Family have a surname? yes. But they get to choose if they want to use it, or another name associated with them or the family, like their royal title.

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