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Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Are Keeping Their Sussex Titles Despite Criticism
Instead of bowing to her critics, Meghan Markle has doubled down on the whole keeping-her-title controversy.
Talking to guest Mindy Kaling in the second episode of her Netflix show With Love, Meghan, Prince Harry's wife noted that it was funny how the actress kept referring to her by her maiden name.
"You know I’m Sussex now," Meghan pointed out. "You have kids and you go, 'No, I share my name with my children.' I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me, but it just means so much to say, ‘This is our family name. Our little family name.'"
But wait, you're wondering, aren't her and Harry's children named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor?
Well, the answer is... they are. But they don't have to be.
So why weren't they just called Archie Sussex and Lili Sussex from the beginning, since they were born to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex—which remain Harry and Meghan's titles despite their purposeful step away (and ongoing estrangement from) the royal family?
While there's rhyme and reason behind how royal names are selected, the truth is that they exist in a state of flux, with many members of the family born with a name they will not have—or at least won't be known by—for the entirety of their life.
And that doesn't just apply to a woman changing her surname when she marries. Which, in Meghan's case, was a tad more complicated anyway since she wed a man known as Prince Harry who was born with four first names (Henry Charles Albert David) and sometimes used a last name, such as when he was at school or in the military.
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Why is Meghan Markle now Meghan Sussex?
When Meghan married Harry in 2018, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II gave them the titles Duke and Duchess of Sussex. It was an expected wedding present from the then-92-year-old monarch, who at the time believed the couple would remain senior royals for the duration of, at the very least, her life.
While those immediately became their official titles, it was no slight against Harry's wife that she was still popularly known by the more colloquial Meghan Markle. The same has gone for her sister-in-law, who is still often referred to as Kate Middleton despite having become Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, upon marrying Harry's older brother Prince William in 2011. (And William always calls her Catherine in public.)
The future king and queen consort are now the Prince and Princess of Wales, but familiar premarital monikers die hard.
When Harry and Meghan resigned from their posts as senior royals and left the U.K. for the U.S. in 2020, the queen allowed them to remain the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, but barred the couple from marketing themselves as such or otherwise profiting from the titles.
Which they technically have not, though being members of the royal family haven't exactly hurt their brand awareness. (And their most vehement critics keep clamoring for them to relinquish their titles altogether.)
So Meghan theoretically had Sussex in her pocket all along. But, as she has pointed out, it's more important to her now than ever to share a surname with her children, and she's going by Meghan Sussex the way her husband was once Harry Wales (as a son of Charles and Diana, Prince and Princess of Wales) and is now Harry Sussex.
“It’s our shared name as a family,” Meghan told People recently, "and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children. I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
And yet, her kids weren't always Archie Sussex and Lili Sussex.
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Why weren't Archie and Lili named Sussex when they were born?
When they were born, in 2019 and 2021, respectively, Meghan and Harry's children weren't guaranteed lofty titles the way their cousins Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis were as the offspring of Prince William, who's first in line to the throne.
And, upon arrival, Archie and Lilibet's parents did not give them titles, nor did their grandmother Queen Elizabeth II insist her great-grandchildren have them.
Instead, they were given the hyphenate surname Mountbatten-Windsor. The first half comes from their great-grandfather Prince Philip (who opted to go by Philip Mountbatten, his maternal grandparents' surname, when he became a naturalized British citizen before marrying then-Princess Elizabeth in 1947). The second half refers to the storied House of Windsor, the name chosen by King George V in 1917 to apply to "all descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria," his paternal grandmother.
Who gets a last name and who doesn't in the royal family?
In 1960, the queen and Philip opted to join forces, determining that all of their descendants who weren't designated as his or her royal highness and prince or princess would be Mountbatten-Windsors.
Archie and Lili's first cousins once removed, their great-uncle Prince Edward and Duchess Sophie's children Lady Louise and James, Viscount Severn, also have Mountbatten-Windsor as surnames.
And they are so titled because their dad was an earl when they were born and it's what the queen wished them to be called, though they were also technically prince and princess at birth and still are. (King Charles gifted his youngest brother Edward the title of Duke of Edinburgh, previously their father Philip's title, in March 2023. So, Sophie is now Duchess of Edinburgh after spending most of her married life as Countess of Wessex, though it took forever for her not to be known as Sophie Rhys-Jones.)
Though anyone can snag a last name from their birth titles when needed, hence William Wales and Harry Wales—born Prince William of Wales and Prince Harry of Wales—back in the day.
When did Archie and Lili's names change to Sussex?
When the queen died in 2022 and William and Harry's father became King Charles III, then Archie and Lili became children of the son of the reigning monarch, and as such became entitled to go by Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lili of Sussex, now sixth and seventh in line to the throne.
Meanwhile, their cousins Prince George of Cambridge, Princess Charlotte of Cambridge and Prince Louis of Cambridge became Prince George of Wales and so on, once William and Kate became the Prince and Princess of Wales. (So when they're in need of regular names for school, etc., we present George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales.)
Archie had already long since been christened, but Lili's parents used her princess title when she was baptized in March 2023 and the royal family's website was updated to reflect both kids' new titles soon after.
And now,
especially since Meghan and Harry are living in America, the whole family's last name is just Sussex. Really, what else would it have been?
Read on for more of the meanings behind royal family names:
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Queen Elizabeth II
Queen Elizabeth II shared her first name with her mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (known as the Queen Mother later in life), and the remaining names of her full born name, Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, came from her maternal and paternal grandmothers, respectively.
Moreover, her full title was Queen Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God Queen of this Realm and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.
Meanwhile, it's royal protocol that every new royal family member's name is approved by the reigning monarch. (Elizabeth's younger sister Princess Margaret was originally intended to be Ann, but their dad King George V wasn't feeling it.)
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King Charles III
The current monarch was born Charles Philip Arthur George and went on to be the longest-serving heir apparent in British history before becoming king at 73.
His first name is one of the royal family's oldest names, dating back to the 17th century, while Philip is inspired by his father, the Duke of Edinburgh.
Formerly the Duke of Cornwall and Duke of Rothesay, Charles became the Prince of Wales—a title historically given to the eldest son of the reigning monarch—at the age of 21 in 1958.
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Prince William and Kate Middleton
The future king's full name, William Arthur Philip Louis (born June 21, 1982) is filled with tradition, including Philip as a nod to his grandfather, Arthur, which he shares with Prince Charles, and Louis, which he passed down to his two sons as well.
In the 1992 book Diana: Her Story, it was revealed that Princess Diana actually picked her two sons' names after vetoing her husband Prince Charles' picks.
When she was asked, "Who chose [Harry's] name?," Diana answered, "I did... chose William and Harry, but Charles did the rest." She also revealed Charles' original picks: "He wanted Albert and Arthur, and I said no. Too old!"
After William and Catherine "Kate" Middleton married in 2011, they became the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. When his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II died and his father Charles ascended to the throne in 2022, they became the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Incidentally, they also replaced Charles and now Queen Camilla as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, Duke and Duchess of Rothesay, and Earl and Countess of Chester.
They've also had the Scottish titles Earl and Countess of Strathearn since their wedding day and are known as Baron and Baroness Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland.
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Prince George of Wales
George Alexander Louis was Prince George of Cambridge at birth on July 22, 2013, but is now Prince George of Wales, his name shifting accordingly.
Louis was seemingly a nod to Louis Mountbatten, Prince Philip's beloved uncle and a mentor to future King Charles, who was killed in an IRA bombing in 1979.
The Duchess of Cambridge
Princess Charlotte of Wales
William and Kate's daughter's full name—Charlotte Elizabeth Diana—is filled with poignant tributes to many of her family members.
Charlotte, born May 2, 2015, is also believed to be a nod to her granddad Charles, as well as the middle name of Kate's sister Pippa Middleton and grandmother. Elizabeth is clearly a reference to Queen Elizabeth, her great-grandmother, while Diana is also another clear tribute, paying respect to William's late mother.
When her parents became Prince and Princess of Wales, she also went from being a Cambridge to being Princess Charlotte of Wales.
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Prince Louis of Wales
"The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son Louis Arthur Charles," Kensington Palace announced shortly after the birth of William and Kate's third child on April 23, 2018. "The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge."
Once again, he too is now Prince Louis of Wales.
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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
Henry Charles Albert David was born Prince Henry of Wales on Sept. 15, 1984, but his parents said they'd be calling him Harry and that's the name that stuck.
When Harry married California native and Suits alum Meghan Markle in 2018 they became the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
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Prince Archie of Sussex
Meghan and Harry just liked the name Archie, so that's what they named their firstborn child when he was born on May 6, 2019.
The choice stumped royal experts, with historian Marlene Koenig previously telling E! News, "This is a most unusual choice [of name], but I am not surprised because I have said that they would go out of the box. There are no Archies or Archibald's in the family. I have said a few times that the parents of non-royals seem to have more leeway, more freedom." (It is worth noting that Princess Diana has an ancestor named Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll of Scotland.)
Harrison, however, literally means "son of Harry."
His surname upon arrival was Mountbatten-Windsor, the adopted surname of Prince Philip when he became a British citizen, combined with Windsor, the last name of the queen's male-line descendants who do not have royal styles and titles.
When his great-grandmother the queen died and grandad Charles became king, as a child of the son of the reigning monarch he became Prince Archie of Sussex.
Instagram / Meghan Markle
Princess Lilibet of Sussex
Lilibet "Lili" Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born to Meghan and Harry on June 4, 2021.
"Lili is named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet," read a statement from the family. "Her middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother, The Princess of Wales."
Akin to her brother, she became Princess Lilibet of Sussex when her grandfather Charles became king.
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Princess Beatrice
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip's third child, Prince Andrew, became the Duke of York when he married Sarah Ferguson (post-divorce, they're still Duke and Duchess of York), and they welcomed their first child in 1988, Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.
Beatrice, which means "she who brings happiness," was the name of Queen Victoria's fifth daughter. It was far from the odds-makers' radar when they were predicting the name of the queen's fifth grandchild. Elizabeth, of course, is an homage to the queen, whose own grandmother was Mary of Teck.)
As a child of the son of the reigning monarch, Beatrice was given an HRH (Her Royal Highness) title and became a princess.
The queen didn't give her husband Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi a title when they wed in 2020, so their daughters Sienna and Athena are Mapelli Mozzis.
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Princess Eugenie
Andrew and Sarah returned to the Victorian era to name their second daughter, Eugenie Victoria Helena.
Princess Victoria Eugenie was a daughter of the aforementioned Princess Beatrice, Victoria's ninth and final child.
When Eugenie wed Jack Brooksbank in 2018, the queen opted not to give him an official title, so he remains a mister and their sons August and Earnest are Brooksbanks.
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