Can Meghan REALLY call herself Meghan Sussex? What royal protocol says about her preferred name, by REBECCA ENGLISH

‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now,’ a clearly irritated Meghan snapped at her ‘friend’, actress Mindy Kaling, barely minutes into her new Netflix series.

And just in case poor Mindy, who looked visibly stunned at the slap-down, hadn’t got the message: ‘You have kids and you go ‘No, I share my name with my children’. I didn’t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go ‘This is OUR family name’. Our little family name.’

‘Well, now I know and I love it,’ her clearly awkward guest stuttered.

Fortunately by the time it got to Drew Barrymore this week, the message had well and truly been dictated – and received.

‘Meghan Sussex,’ the star trilled as she introduced her on her eponymous show, to a now smiling duchess.

The Duchess’s insistence on using her title as a surname has caused a stir amongst royal-watchers, with many questioning her decision to adopt ‘Sussex’ as her family name, particularly in light of the couple’s limited connection to the county.

They have only ever officially visited the region once – for just six hours – after a whistle-stop tour in October 2018 taking in Brighton, Chichester and Peacehaven.

While members of the Royal Family entitled to the style of HRH Prince or Princess do not actually need a use surname day to day, according to Buckingham Palace, officially the family’s name is Mountbatten-Windsor – and is recorded as such on both Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet’s birth certificates.

Drew Barrymore (pictured with Meghan) became the first celebrity to refer to Meghan Markle by the moniker ‘Meghan Sussex’

‘It’s so funny you keep saying Meghan Markle, you know I’m Sussex now,’ Meghan told Mindy Kaling, who looked confused

This dates back to 1960 when Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh decided they would like their own direct descents to be distinguished from the rest of the Royal Family, without changing the name of the Royal House (which had been Windsor since 1917, after George V anglicised the name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a result of anti-German public sentiment).

And so it was declared in the Privy Council that the Queen’s descendants would add a hyphenated ‘Mountbatten’ to reflect Prince Philip’s surname, which he himself took on in 1947 when he became a naturalised Briton.

However it may come as a surprise to some to learn that Meghan is not actually wrong either.

In fact members of the Royal Family – indeed, the peerage generally -often use their dukedom or title as a ‘shorthand surname’.

Hence Harry was always known as Harry Wales when at school and in the military as a nod to his father, King Charles, then the Prince of Wales.

William has also always used the named Wales, and his children do so too now.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie (at least before they got married) also used the surname York, after their father, Prince Andrew, the Duke of York.

But the children of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, who while entitled to be referred to as HRHs have chosen not to use their titles, use Mountbatten-Windsor.

It is, therefore, not entirely surprising at all that Harry and Meghan would choose to have their children, Archie and Lilibet, known as Sussex, or that they would use it as well.

Harry and Meghan (pictured together in her new Netflix series Love, Meghan) were bestowed the Sussex title by the late Queen Elizabeth II on their wedding day in 2018

Meghan Markle’s With Love show has a lowly 11 per cent rating from viewers with it behind wrestling and sitcoms on Netflix ‘s chart

‘With Love, Meghan’ landed on Netflix on Tuesday morning and is aimed at showing a new side to the Duchess of Sussex

Meghan pictured with Prince Harry who makes a fleeting appearance in his wife’s lifestyle series

Wendy Bosberry-Scott, editor of Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage, explains: ‘The official surname of the Royal Family is Mountbatten-Windsor. However, it has long been the practice of the Royal Family, and indeed the peerage, to use a title as a surname where one is available. This is why when Prince Harry was in the army, he was known as Harry Wales, as his father was then Prince of Wales.

‘Now that he is the Duke of Sussex, it is perfectly within protocol for him to use Harry Sussex and for his wife to use Meghan Sussex. This is no different from the Duke of Norfolk calling himself Edward Norfolk, when his surname is Howard. ‘

Ms Bosberry-Scott adds: ‘Typically, where a title is involved, children are registered under both names, as was the case when Prince Archie was registered in 2019; he appears in the indexes of the General Register Office under Sussex and Mountbatten-Windsor. 

‘There are many other examples of this happening. The Sussexes are not doing anything unusual here as it is common practice within the Royal Family and the British peerage.’

Joe Little, managing editor of specialist publication Majesty magazine, also confirms this, explaining: ‘It is a practice that has been going on for years. While not specifically dictated in the rules according to Buckingham Palace, there is fluidity.’

What remains interesting, however, is that Meghan is suddenly so keen to have the new family name known now – and so pointedly insisting on being called by it.

And her reason for that, well, is anyone’s guess.