The name Meghan Markle has officially been retired.
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, 43, spoke to Mindy Kaling about why she prefers the last name Sussex in her new Netflix docuseries, With Love, Meghan.
“It’s so funny you keep saying Markle,” Meghan said. “You know it’s Sussex now. You have kids and you go, 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 go, this is our family name. Our little family now.”
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The conversation led to public curiosity over the royal family’s last names and where they come from. Below, Us Weekly breaks down why Meghan’s name is Sussex and other royal last names.
The Royals Have 2 Last Names
Before 1917, the royal family technically didn’t have last names and therefore individual royals used their royal title or “house” as a substitute. This changed when King George V started using the name of his royal house, Windsor, as a last name.
When Prince Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, married Prince Philip in 1947, they combined their last names to be Mountbatten-Windsor.
This name is usually given to royals without HRH (His or Her Royal Highness) or prince/princess titles who wouldn’t already have a royal house to use as a substitute for a last name.
As Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, didn’t have titles at the time of their respective births, they were given the last name Mountbatten-Windsor.
The children were made a prince and a princess respectively after their grandfather, King Charles III, took the throne on September 8, 2022. Archie and Lilibet’s royal “house” subsequently became Sussex to reflect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex titles held by Harry and Meghan since their wedding in 2018.
It is not known whether the children’s names have been legally changed to reflect the title change, though it’s worth noting the royal website refers to them as “Prince Archie of Sussex” and “Princess Lilibet of Sussex.”
“It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children,” Meghan said in an interview with People on Monday, March 3. “I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
This practice is not uncommon among the royal family. For example, when Prince Charles was named the Prince of Wales in 1958, Wales became his royal house. This was also inherited by Princess Diana, Harry and Prince William, who used Wales as a last name while growing up.
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The brothers also used the name Wales while serving in the U.K. military.
Similarly, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s two daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, previously used the last name York to honor their parents’ titles Duke and Duchess of York.
However, Beatrice and Eugenie’s last names have since been changed to their husband’s names. For example, Beatrice’s name is styled on the royal website as “Princess Beatrice, Mrs. Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi,” while Eugenie’s is styled as “Princess Eugenie, Mrs. Jack Brooksbank.”
Titles are usually only used as last names in situations when a last name is officially or legally required. Princess Kate Middleton, for example, has never publicly asked to be called “Kate Wales,” and instead uses her formal title, the Princess of Wales.
