Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle Changed Their Children’s Last Names

When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s first child, Archie, was born in May 2019, the couple announced their son’s full name was Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. However, in 2024, they’ve officially decided to use the last name of “Sussex” for both Archie and their daughter, Lilibet.

This news broke on the heels of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s launch of a revamped website, Sussex.com. The online page was met with immediate criticism from corners of the British press. The two main complaints? The couple’s use of a coat of arms—despite no longer being working members of the royal family—as well as the use of “sussex” in the domain name. When Prince Harry and Meghan Markle left the monarchy in 2020, Queen Elizabeth asked them to no longer use the brand name “Sussex Royal” (which was then their Instagram handle and the name of their website). In the years following, the couple instead used “Archewell” for their website and production company.

Why the website name change? When it launched, “Archewell” was a nod to their son, Archie. But now that they have two children, it’s thought that they wanted a website that reflected the entire family and their projects. The Times of London reported they decided on “Sussex” because over the past year, they all adopted it as a last name—despite the children using Mountbatten-Windsor for years.

The surname switch from Mountbatten-Windsor to Sussex stems back to the coronation of King Charles. As their grandfather took the throne, and Archie and Lilibet moved up in the line of succession, the children were afforded the new titles of Prince and Princess of Sussex. Previously, they were Master Archie and Miss Lilibet.

British prince and princesses typically use their titles or their parents’s titles as last names; for example, Prince Harry and Prince William went by “William Wales” and “Harry Wales” at school to reflect their parents’ titles of the Prince and Princess of Wales. By adopting Sussex for their children, the couple are just following tradition. It’s also undoubtedly easier for Harry and Meghan, who style their names as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, to finally have the same last names as their children.

And, one does have to admit: Archie Sussex and Lilibet Sussex do have a nice ring to them.