Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have announced this week that they have changed their children’s surnames from Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor to Archie Sussex and Lilibet Sussex. This is coming few weeks after they faced a backlash earlier this year for changing their official website’s name to Sussex.com
The backlash was as a result of their use of the British coat of arms, which according to the critics is not appropriate considering the facts that they were no longer working members of the Royal Family.
It is to be recalled that both Prince Harry and Meghan Markle walked away from their royal duties in 2020. In the wake of this, the late Queen Elizabeth asked them not to keep using the brand name, Royal Sussex. Nevertheless, it was revealed by Buckingham Palace that the couple will no longer be referred to as His/Her royal highnesses but will still be referred to as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
After the ascension of Prince Charles as the King of England in September 2022, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s two kids, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet who were formerly known as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor were given the titles of Prince and Princess.
When Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were asked to drop the brand name Royal Sussex, they adopted the name Archwell for their brand name. Archwell is an acknowledgement to their son’s name Archie but now that they have two kids, they decided to go with the name Sussex. According to the reports made by Times of London they settled on this name because they had all adopted it as a last name since last year.
It is not uncommon for British Royals to adopt their parents’ royal titles as surnames. A very good example is Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Children, Prince George of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Louis of Wales who are referred to in school as George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales, as a result of their parent’s royal titles, Prince and Princess of Wales.
While in the Military, both Prince Harry and Prince William also followed this tradition by bearing Harry Wales and William Wales, which was their father’s title at the time when he was still the Prince of Wales.
Specifically, the royal family’s surname is Mountbatten-Windsor which is a merge of the Royal Family’s last name Windsor and Prince Philip’s last name Mountbatten.
So from henceforth The Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s two children now go by the names Prince Archie Sussex and Princess Lilibet Sussex.
Prince Harry is 5th in line in the succession to the British throne. He comes fifth in line after Prince William and his 3 children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.