"And we can never be royal." The royal name game and a little more.

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Homeschooling has proven to be one of the best decisions I have made for my girls.  We are learning all kinds of things that are random, useful, and a few things that may be useless but interesting depending on what it is.  One small question can spark an hour-long conversation.

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For example, what is Queen Elizabeth's last name.  Just saying Windsor was not enough because it is actually a very interesting process on how the royals get their last names so I wanted to share what we learned (briefly).



What we learned was that simply asking what the last name of a royal is a trick questions.  Basically, the royals do not use last names for the most part.

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Queen Elizabeth simply goes by Queen Elizabeth.  If and when she signs official documents, she signs Elizabeth R.  The R is for Regina which is the Latin word for Queen.  So where did the name Windsor come from?  Windsor came from the House of Windsor which came to be in 1917.  This name was officially adopted by King George V.  The previous name King George V went by was Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (huh?).  Good move changing that name, the Windsor name is the official name of the current royal family.

Queen Elizabeth has reigned supreme for over 62 years.  She is married to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark.  (((This is where it is going to run off the rails.)))

Philip's signature.
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Let me add that Prince Philip's family used the surname Mountbatten.  It was decreed that when Elizabeth and Philip married, they would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.  Together they have four children, eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

Now you might be thinking what are all their last names or you may not even care at this point but bear with me, this is good stuff.

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Charles is their first son.  He is the Prince of Wales. He is also the Duke of Cornwall but we will just leave him as a Wales for now.  He is Charles Wales.  Princess Diana just went by Diana but for the official documents, she was Diana Wales.

When Charles' and Diana's children William and Harry were in private schools and the army, they went by the name Wales for the record.  When William married Kate, he became the Duke of Cambridge and Kate became the Duchess of Cambridge for all intensive purposes.  Their son's name is Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge.  He could also be called Prince George Alexander Louis Mountbatten-Windsor.

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Princess Anne (Princess Royal) is the second child of Queen Elizabeth and Philip.  She used the name Anne Mountbatten-Windsor when she married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973.


Prince Andrew is their third child.  He is the Duke of York.  His children go by Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York but to make it short, Beatrice York and Eugenie York.


And lastly, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. He actually uses the name Edward Windsor professionally but if you are following the pattern, Edward Wessex would also work.  His wife is Sophie, the Countess of Wessex (Sophie Wessex). Their children are Louise Wessex and James Wessex.

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Confused yet?  Also realize that any of the above people could also choose to go by Windsor or Mountbatten-Windsor if they chose to do so.

As you can see, this is a fairly complex system for simply having a last name but it has been in place for a while and does not look like it is going anywhere anytime soon.

Just for fun, how the royals stack up-i.e. who is next in line for the thrown?

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First up is Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, or may be not.  This may not happen if it is up to the Queen. Charles is famous for committing infidelity while married to Princess Diana (what an idiot!) and then divorcing her prior to her death.  He then married Camille Parker-Bowles which did not and does not delight the Queen Mum one single bit. (Off with his head!)  It seems Charlie is also catching some heat for evading taxes, another intolerable act that is not sitting well with the Queen Mum.  You can read more on that here and here.  It appears that the Queen has decided to skip a generation and pass the thrown down to Prince William.  She made a promise to baby George that his dad would be the next King of England (I hope so) and hey, she is the Queen so she can do whatever she wants to. Its good to be the Queen!  He was next in line after his father but now it looks like he will not have to wait for Charlie to kick the bucket or mess up on a royal level to sit on the throne.

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Lets just say Charles gets his chance to be king next, then William then who?
Next up is Prince George of Cambridge (William's son), then Prince Harry (Charles' second son and William's brother and also a scandalous royal), then Prince Andrew (Charles' younger brother), Princess Beatrice (Andrew's daughter), Princess Eugenie(Andrew's daughter), Prince Edward (Charles' youngest brother), James Windsor (Edward's son), Lady Louise Windsor (Edward's daughter), Princess Anne (Charles' sister), Peter Phillips (Anne's son), Savannah Phillips (Phillip's daughter), Isla Phillips (Phillip's daughter), Zara Phillips (Peter Phillip's sister), and finally about a million years later, Mia Tindall (Zara Phillip's daughter).  Well that was exhausting but really interesting.  I love all the fancy titles, Lady, Lord, Duke, Earl, and so on.

If you want to learn more, links are below. I also included a British slang site just for more fun!  Cheers!

Royal family tree.
Royal family history.
More royal family history.
British slang