Royals opt to use funny, affectionate nicknames when talking about one another, much like any other family. The Firm has become well-known for their love of pulling pranks, giving each other joke Christmas presents and generally poking fun at one another whenever they can, and nicknames are just part of this. Whether it is Cabbage or Squeak, Gary or Stavros, the royal nicknames are hilarious and offer a glimpse at the light-hearted nature of the family behind the crown.
One young royal who has a particularly sweet pet name is Princess Charlotte. Her father, Prince William was heard using it when Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis visited the Chelsea Flower Show in 2019 to see the 'Back to Nature Garden' that the Princess of Wales had co-created. The Wales family's visit to the famous show in 2019 offered the public an intimate glimpse at the family as they explored the garden. While he played on a rope swing in the corner of the garden, Prince William shouted out to his daughter and asked her to give him a push.
But instead of saying 'Charlotte', he called for 'Mignonette'. The French word is said to mean "small, sweet, and delicate" or "cute". During a later visit to Northern Ireland, it was revealed that Kate calls her daughter 'Lottie' as she chatted to waiting members of the crowd. It is a royal tradition that while a royal is at school or while they are working in a professional capacity that they are known by their first name and use their parent's title as a last name. This means that Princess Charlotte is known as Charlotte Wales to her classmates and teachers.
The same goes for her elder brother as he is known as George Wales at school, and it is likely that younger brother Louis uses the same style when he joins his siblings at Lambrook School in Berkshire. Prince William and Prince Harry also adopted this tradition during their education and time in the military. They both took the last name of Wales after their father’s former title of the Prince of Wales.
However, the tradition of using a parent’s title as the last name is not something that every royal chooses to do. As the official last name of the Royal Family is Mountbatten-Windsor, many royal children use that surname at school. For example, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie were known to use that style, rather than be known as Beatrice and Eugenie York. The same goes for Prince Harry and Meghan’s children when they were previously known as Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor. However, in 2023, it was announced that the pair would be styled as Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet of Sussex after the couple revealed they did not wish to deny their children of their birth right.
