Now that the newest member of the royal family is present and accounted for, many are wondering just why the fancy moniker? Well, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, is barely a few days old and is already ushering in a new era for the royal threesome. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s choice in moniker is a break from royal tradition and symbolizes the couples journey towards modernization.
Archie, who will not be a prince, unless Queen Elizabeth II issues a Letters Patent declaring otherwise like she did for Will and Kate’s children, will be referred to as Master Archie when he grows up. Archie, nickname for Archibald, goes back to the aristocratic Middle Ages Scotland. Archibald means “genuine” and “bold. Believe it or not, Archie is a wildly popular name in the UK as it was number 18 on the top 100 boys names in 2017.
“The choice definitely shows their personality, but also to a certain extent, the changes in the royal family as a whole, where things have become — especially since Princess Diana’s death — more open,” states Cleveland Evans, a former president of the American Name Society and psychology professor at Bellevue University to Time Magazine as he refers to Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. “They probably want to modernize it and want the royal family to be seen as regular people, which is why they’d choose a name like Archie, which at the moment is a regular, everyday British boy’s name.”
Harrison, which is Archie’s second name, is typically a last name or surname. “It’s highly unique to the royal family that they would use something that is basically a surname as part of the child’s given name,” Evans says. Harrison hails from the English surname literally meaning “son of Harry.” And of course, once again, the name itself was number 34 on the top 100 boys names in 2017.
Archie got off easier than his father, uncle, cousins, and host of other royal family members with just two names. It is common practice for the royal family members to have three to four names easy as it is a longtime tradition of memorializing past relatives. Well, whatever his name, we are glad that he is here. We were all on baby-watch and couldn’t wait to share this experience with America’s princess. Congratulations to the Royals. Archie, we will be watching you grow-up and cannot wait to see what the future holds for you!
