The Surname Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Kids Might Have

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made it clear long before their royal wedding that they intend to have a family someday. So it’s no surprise that people are constantly speculating about the couple’s future children, including what the royal tots’ last names will be.

One might expect that the tiniest British royal family members take the same surname as Queen Elizabeth II, due to being direct descendents of the reigning monarch. But despite being born into the Mountbatten-Windsor family, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s future kids will likely take the surname of Sussex instead. As The Sun reports, this is not an unsual circumstance at all.

You may recall that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s children will all likely take the surname of Cambridge, as a nod to their parents’ title, rather than Mountbatten-Windsor. Remember when Kensington Palace confirmed that Prince George would be known as George Cambridge after he started school? The same will probably be true for George’s little sibs, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

And long before them, Prince Harry and Prince William also took a different surname from the Queen — Wales, in their case — as a nod to their parents’ titles while they were in school.

Although this name change may seem a bit strange, there’s actually quite a sweet possible explanation behind the method: It’s thought that the use of another surname separate from the queen’s will allow the kids to blend into a school environment more easily. At the same time, this new surname still acknowledges the renowned titles that the kids’ parents hold.

Ever since King George V’s reign in the early 20th century, the royal family has officially been known as The House of Windsor, a name taken from one of the royal properties. But even that name received a slight change from Queen Elizabeth II herself, when she added the hyphenated “Mountbatten” as a nod to her husband Prince Philip’s adopted surname. How sweet is that?