What will Kate Middleton’s Last Name Be?

A royal mystery for you:

Traditionally, married women take on the surname of their husband. That leaves us wondering about Princess Bride: What will Kate Middleton’s last name be after her marriage to Prince William?

On this copy of Prince William’s birth certificate from 1982, you can see that a blank line runs through the field for “surname”. (Incidentally, the newborn’s father’s occupation is listed as: Prince of the United Kingdom!)

Would you be shocked to learn that there are civilized people in the year 2011 who do not have last names? Well, that is the case for the Royal Family. Which does leave us wondering: What does it say on William’s credit card? Or does he always pay for things with his bodyguard’s plastic?

A story is told about the time William and Kate were at a convenience store in an out-of-the-way location in Britain when William brought several items and, embarrassingly enough, discovered that he had no cash on hand. (Or ‘Grannys’, as Princess Diana famously taught Wills and Harry to call the UK bills which feature the countenance of Queen Elizabeth!) “Are you Prince William?” asked the young cashier.

Tired of the publicity, Wills stared down at his shoes and mumbled, “No.”

However, without a means of paying for his groceries, he went outside to ask Kate to pay. The royal girlfriend presented her credit card to the cashier who now knew the identity of the couple in her aisle, as the card read, “Catherine Middleton.”

When Prince William was in uniform in the Royal Air Force, his uniform identity tag read “William Wales” although that is not his last name.

The Royal Family does not use last names, thus, William’s full name is Prince William Arthur Philip Louis.

In 1960, Queen Elizabeth decided that her descendents would all be known as the house of Mountbatten-Windsor. If a surname needs to be used for whatever reason (and God knows that William doesn’t need a credit card!) then Mountbatten-Windsor is what is used.

Prior to 1960, the family who descended from Queen Victoria was known as the house of Windsor, as declared in 1917 by King George V.

The British Royal site explains the technicalities of royal surnames in great detail. However, we are sure that when hearing about ‘Princess Kate’ there is nobody on Planet Earth who will respond, “Princess Kate WHO?“

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Filed under: Royal Wedding News!

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