When on 27 November 2017 His Royal Highness Prince Henry of Wales became engaged, quite a few royalty fans turned out to be confused. Who on earth was Prince Henry? Well, Prince Harry of course. Although he is always called Harry, his official first name is Henry. When he was born his parents even officially […]
A Title for the Children of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
They have only been engaged for a few days, and already now I start to have enough of the whole Prince Harry of Wales and Meghan Markle thing. Unfortunately I am certain it will go on for a while. On Thursday I was involved in a heated discussion about the possible titles of the eventual […]
A Third Child for Catherine and William – What will the Name be?
Their first two children received quite traditional names: George Alexander Louis and Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. The first child of Prince William, The Duke of Cambridge and his wife Catherine, will probably once be King George VII and his name is frequently used within the British royal family since the early 18th century. Saint George is […]
Odd Royal and Noble Names
Names, especially first names, have always fascinated me. No idea why, but probably it had something to do with the fact that I myself received a rather old-fashioned name. Netty is the call name of my maternal grandmother, who wrote the name as Nettie herself. My parents thought with a ‘y’ it would look a […]
Kate Middleton … Kate who?
The news section for the British Royal Family of the British newspaper Daily Telegraph says in its header “Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 2012 but continues to carry out an exacting range of duties with Prince Philip. They are ably supported by Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, […]
Styles and Titles (2)
For a long time it was common to translate the name of royals and nobles, both first names and titles, into the prefered language. In The Netherlands for example Grand Duke Jean of Luxembourg went by the first name of “Jan”, his son Henri was often called “Hendrik”. Although it has become less usual, it […]
Styles and Titles
A royal I won’t mention by name, recently said that styles should only be used on an envelope. Searching around on the Internet it seems you can also use styles as salutation in a letter or when addressing people orally. However how often do you see these styles also used in other places, such as […]
Restoration of noble titles in Austria?
The year 1918 saw the end of three big empires in the world: Russia, Germany and Austria. Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany fled the country and spent the rest of his life – he died in 1941 – in the Netherlands. The fate of the Russian imperial family was worse, and several family members were […]