{"id":1571,"date":"2021-03-12T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/evanevanstours.com\/blog\/?p=1571"},"modified":"2025-07-24T10:12:02","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T09:12:02","slug":"a-short-history-of-royal-surnames","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/evanevanstours.com\/blog\/a-short-history-of-royal-surnames\/","title":{"rendered":"A short history of Royal surnames"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re a fan of the British Royal family<\/a>, you might feel like you know everything you possibly could about them. Do you know what their last name is?

You might be surprised to hear that the Royals of the UK don\u2019t actually <\/span>require<\/span><\/i> a last name. But if you\u2019re the king of Great Britain, do you really need a surname? Everyone knows who you are, after all. The Royals are just so famous and instantly identifiable that they don\u2019t need to use their last name all that often.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>A sign of the times<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Queen herself signs official documents with the name \u201cElizabeth R\u201d. R stands for \u2018Regina\u2019. That\u2019s not one of her given names, it\u2019s actually the Latin title for queen, or more accurately \u2018reigning Monarch\u2019. All of this aside, the Royal family <\/span>does <\/span><\/i>technically have a last name which they use every so often, despite their lack of need for one. This wasn\u2019t always the case, though.

Queen Victoria, who ruled Britain between 1837 and 1901, had a husband called Prince Albert. He was a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Although this wasn\u2019t <\/span>technically<\/span><\/i> the family name, people slowly began referring to them as the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha\u2019s and assuming it was the Royal surname. This was never really a problem. Until World War I, that is.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Royal Brand<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, Edward VII, his son George V and Prince Albert all belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (sovereigns take the name of their house from their father) – and people believed this sounded far too German. As you can expect, this was an extremely unwanted link during turbulent World War I. So, King George V decided his family need a brand new, \u2018English-sounding\u2019 name.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They considered everything from Tudor-Stuart, to Plantagenet, and simply \u2018England\u2019, before settling with his advisors on Windsor, after the royal residence Windsor Castle. Even now, the British royal family belongs to the House of Windsor, making it their \u2018official\u2019 family surname.

It doesn\u2019t stop there, though. The most recent development in the Royal surname drama was Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip\u2019s decision to make everything just a tad more confusing. They wanted their own descendants to be distinguished from the rest of the Royals, and so decided that they would change their name, and their children\u2019s, to Mountbatten-Windsor.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Last names are a matter of precedent rather than an official decree, so Kings and Queens of Great Britain are more than welcome to change the last names of their family whenever they please.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The modern Royal family seem to adopt whatever name they prefer or what\u2019s most convenient at a specific time. For example, Prince Harry and Prince William adopted their father\u2019s designation as the Prince of <\/span>Wales<\/span><\/a> and used the surname \u2018Wales\u2019 while serving in the military.

We hope you\u2019ve enjoyed a mini history lesson on the Royal surname story. If that\u2019s not enough for you, why not treat yourself to a truly regal experience on our <\/span>Royal London Tour<\/span><\/a>? You\u2019ll be able to see a traditional Changing of the Guard ceremony as well as check out all of the top London landmarks.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might be surprised to hear that the Royals of the UK don\u2019t actually require a last name. Find out more in this short article!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1330,1329,786],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-british-culture","8":"category-british-history","9":"category-royal-family"},"yoast_head":"\nA short history of Royal surnames<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You might be surprised to hear that the Royals of the UK don\u2019t actually require a last name. 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