Why Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Royal Baby Has the Surname Mountbatten-Windsor

We finally have a royal baby name! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announced their newborn son's name, and it's Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

But why not "Sussex" as the last name?

Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and Prince Charles all carry the last name Mountbatten-Windsor (a combination of Elizabeth and Philip’s last names). For any non Crown fans in the room, that name is passed on to all the male-line descendants of the queen and Duke of Edinburgh, except for those with royal titles and styles.

However, Kate Middleton and Prince William, Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have opted to use their royal title of Cambridge as their children’s surnames instead of Mountbatten-Windsor (probably in order to blend in a tiny bit more into normal society). In school, Prince George is simply George Cambridge, and the same goes for Charlotte and Louis.

Markle and Harry, however, have decided to not use their titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex as their surname. So the royal baby will be called Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, and will not adopt the name of the English county.

This may be because they believe the baby's lineage through his father should be tied to the Queen in some way, or because Prince Harry and Markle are officially going to start using their royal family names as last names. Or perhaps it's because the "Sussex" title is a substantive title, meaning it's passed down through the royal family to other members (it was previously used by Prince Augustus Frederick in 1801), but the baby will always be a Mountbatten-Windsor. 

Prince Charles and Princess Diana followed the same rules as the Cambridges, with Harry and William adopting the last name Wales before receiving their dukedoms from the queen upon marriage. Harry and William enrolled in the military and in school using Wales as their last name.

Yep, that’s Harry Wales to you. (We’re not giggling, you are.)