In “Romeo and Juliet,” the heroine, whose stars intersect, asks: What we call roses, by other names, would smell sweet. ”
Much fewer people have wrestled with this concept for hundreds of years. How meaningful a name has and does it affect what a person is, or who they are?
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, please say something.
In her new Netflix series “With Love, Meghan,” the duchess, who is married to Prince Harry, told actress Mindy Kaling that her last name is Sussex.
“What's so funny is that I keep saying Meghan Markle,” Meghan said in the second episode of the series, which premiered last week. “You know I'm Sussex right now.”
Meghan cited the importance of sharing a last name with a child.
“I didn't know how much it meant to me, but that means just going. 'This is our last name, our little last name,'” she said.
Kaling, who seemed surprised at first, replied, “Well, now I love it, and I love it.”
It is understandable that Meghan, whose representatives did not respond immediately to requests for comment, insist on using what she feels is the correct form of her name. But like most Meghan-related news, the clip quickly created a wave online as people joined social media to criticise her. Some commenters considered her to be overstated, while others called her to appear to confuse her royal family with the family surname.
There was similar confusion about how she and Prince Harry would “retreat” from their official royal duties in 2020 and move to the United States.
When she appeared in “The View,” two days after the new series premiered, Kaling said she had “a great time” on the show despite critics who felt Meghan had acted in a passive, offensive way towards her.
However, there is still debate about Meghan's last name.
“She completely forgets what her real name is, she doesn't understand it or she's lying,” royal family expert Hilary Fordwich said in a phone interview.
Mr. Foldwich explained that while it is not new for royal members to choose a birth title (who went to Harry Wales when Prince Harry was in the British army), it would not become their last name.
“In the established protocol, he can use Harry Sussex. “She could choose to use Megan Sussex, but that's not their last name. This was a problem with the Netflix clip.”
However, Rachel Bowie, Royals Editor of lifestyle website Purewow, did not consider what Meghan said to be an issue at all.
“Even though Archie and Lili were baptized by “Mount Batten Windsor,” Harry and Meghan borrowed Sussex to create their last name,” Bowie, who previously co-host of the “Royalie-obsessed” podcast, said in a phone interview.
“I've never read it that Meghan officially changed her name, but for her own sake, she feels this connection between the four of them and that they will move around the world under the name Sussex,” she added.
Even from Harry and Meghan's relatives, opinions continue.
Ivar Mountbatten Lord, a cousin of Charles III and reality television star of “The Traitors,” claimed he was wrong about his surname in an interview he gave to the town and country, saying that his family's surname was Mountbatten-Windsor.
“Her kids are called Mount Batten Windsor of Archie and Lillivet. They are not called Archie and Lillivet Sussex because Sussex is a title,” he said.
And Meghan's estranged father, Thomas Markle, complained to the Daily Mail on Saturday about his decision to stop using the name Markle.
To understand exactly how to refer to the royal family, we need to look at the evolving history of names. According to the official British royal website, “Crown members can be known by both the royal name and the last name. It is rare for a core royal member to be featured by the last name.
Members of the royal family had no surnames before 1917, but were only mentioned by the names of the houses and dynasties to which they belonged. That year, George V adopted Windsor as his family home and surname.
In 1960, Queen Elizabeth II and Harry's grandparent Prince Philip changed their names to distinguish their direct descendants from the rest of the extended royal family, creating a new surname Mountbatten-Windsor containing the Philip's surname.
“In most cases, royal members with the rights of HRH princes or princess style and dignity do not require a last name, but if you always need a last name (such as a marriage), that last name is Mount Batten Windsor.”
Meghan currently lives outside of that structure. This means that those rules don't necessarily apply to her. So for now, her choice to be called Megan Sussex will be added to the list of things she is being criticized or accepted.
