Name of Meghan Markle: why she said it was “Sussex” now

• Meghan Markle revealed on his Netflix program that his family name is Sussex.
• Some Royals use Mountbatten-Windsor as a last name, but Harry has never done it.
• The change of Sussex aligns with the royal traditions of the decades.

Meghan Markle is no longer Meghan Markle.

In episode two of his new Netflix program, “With Love, Meghan,” Meghan, 43, told Mindy Kaling that his family name was Sussex. The name comes from her title of Duchess of Sussex, which she won when she married Prince Harry, 40.

Meghan told Kaling that she had found “significant” to share the same name as her children, Prince Archie, 5, and Princess Lilibet, 3, calling Sussex their “family name”. And Wednesday, Drew Barrymore presented him as Meghan Sussex in a clip of his appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show”, which is broadcast on Thursday.

However, Archie and Lili were not born with this surname, so Harry and Meghan’s decision to use it can confuse people who do not religiously follow the royal family.

Here is a ventilation of how family names work for the Royals and how Harry and Meghan may have brought change to Sussex.

Royal surnames

The legal name of Harry at his birth was Henry Charles Albert David, and he had no surname on his birth certificate. His official title was his Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales because his father was the prince of Wales.

Often, the Royals simply do not use no family names, although some members of the British royal family use Mountbatten-Windsor as a last name if necessary.

The royal family has used the Windsor family name since 1917. In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip decided that their direct descendants who had no HRH titles or who would have the title of Prince or Princess would use Mountbatten-Windsor, incorporating Philip’s family name, according to the Royal Family website.

Harry never used Mountbatten-Windsor because he always had an HRH title. Instead, he went by Harry Wales when he needed a surname, as when he was at school and the army, just like Prince William.

Before their marriage in May 2018, the Buckingham Palace announced that the new royal titles of Harry and Meghan would be the Duke and the Duchess of Sussex, and Meghan won a HRH title as a woman from Harry.

Unlike their father, the birth certificates of Archie and Lilibet have listed Mountbatten-Windsor as family names, because they did not have the titles of prince and princess at the time of their births. Instead, they were “Master Archie” and “Miss Lilibet”.

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The transition to Sussex

Although he agreed not to use it for official affairs in 2020, Harry did not officially abandon his HRH title when he returned as a principal Royal, he therefore never adopted Mountbatten-Windsor.

However, Harry’s children obtained new names and titles when the royal succession line changed after the death of Queen Elizabeth II and King Charles III took the throne in September 2022.

Archie and Lili moved to sixth and seventh online for the throne and became Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet de Sussex. The Buckingham Palace updated the succession line on its website to reflect its title changes in March 2023.

Because they now had titles of prince and princess, he would go against the royal tradition so that Archie and Lili continued to use Mountbatten-Windsor despite that he was on their birth certificates. So the change in Sussex is not new; He aligned himself with the longtime royal traditions.

In March 2024, people reported that Harry and Meghan used Sussex as a surname of their children at school, adding that “Sussex is their family name”.

We do not know if Harry and Meghan legally changed their surname in Sussex. The Duke and the Duchess of Sussex did not respond to a request for comments from Business Insider.

Whether they have changed legally or not, Harry and Meghan do the same as Prince William and Kate Middleton.

William and Kate were appointed Prince and Princess of Wales in 2022, and now their children are Prince George de Wales, Princess Charlotte de Wales and Prince Louis of Wales. They use Wales as a surname at school, just as their father and uncle have done.