Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed their new bundle of joy Archie Harrison into the world last week. The delighted Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the royal baby’s name to an excited world alongside the tot’s surname, Mountbatten-Windsor. The surname is given to descendants of the Queen who do not have the HRH title – but can also used by more senior royals, including Princess Anne and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
However the royal surname has a troubled history, which began when the Queen married Prince Philip in 1947.
As Philip prepared to marry Princess Elizabeth, he became a naturalised British Citizen and had to give up his Greek and Danish Royal titles.
In their place, he took the name Mountbatten, which comes from his mother’s side of the family and is an Anglicised rendering of Battenburg.
However, when the Queen was crowned in 1952, this brought up the issue of the name of the royal house.
Prince Philip was at the heart of row over the Royal Family's surname (Image: Getty)
New royal arrival Archie Harrison has the surname Mountbatten-Windsor (Image: Getty)
Lord Louis Mountbatten, Philip’s uncle, advocated for the name House of Mountbatten, while Philip himself suggested House of Edinburgh after his Duke of Edinburgh title.
However, the suggestions were all shot down by then Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Queen Mary and the Queen Mother who strongly believed that the royal name should remain Windsor.
Philip reportedly complained: "I am nothing but a bloody amoeba. I am the only man in the country not allowed to give his name to his own children."
However, when the Queen was pregnant with Prince Andrew in 1960, she told then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan that "she absolutely needed to revisit" the issue of the family name because "it had been irritating her husband since 1952".
The Queen
