Queen Elizabeth’s name lives on as a middle name for several of her great-grandchildren, but Prince Harry and Meghan Markle went a different route when it came to honoring the Duke’s grandmother. Rather than giving their daughter “Elizabeth” as a middle name like other members of the royal family, they named their second child after the Queen using her family nickname “Lilibet.”
When announcing her their daughter’s birth in 2021, it was noted that Lilibet “Lili” Diana was “named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet,” while her “middle name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved late grandmother.”
Did the Sussexes receive the Queen’s blessing?
Days after her the announcement, a palace source told the BBC that the Queen was not asked for permission to use the name Lilibet, though Harry and Meghan denied the report, with a spokesperson saying in a statement: “The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement – in fact his grandmother was the first family member he called.”
“During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honour. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”
The following year, in 2022, Queen Camilla‘s friend, interior designer Nicky Haslam, claimed on HELLO!‘s The Third Act podcast that Harry had told his grandmother that he and Meghan wanted to name their daughter after her, but didn’t share the name. Per Nicky, the Duke called the Queen and told her: “We want to call our daughter after you, Granny,’ and she said, ‘Oh how charming, thank you,’ thinking it will be Elizabeth. So, he got permission, but they didn’t say the name.”
In the book Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story., author Robert Hardman wrote that one member of staff recalled the Queen being “‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ in 2021 after the Sussexes announced that she had given them her blessing to call their baby daughter ‘Lilibet’, the Queen’s childhood nickname.”
© Getty ImagesGreat-grandchildren with “Elizabeth” as a middle name
Princess Lilibet is the only one of the late monarch’s great-grandchildren to have a first name that serves as a tribute to the Queen and the only one to bear her beloved nickname. Peter Phillips was the first of the Queen’s grandchildren to give one of his daughters the middle name Elizabeth, with Isla Elizabeth Phillips born in 2012. Zara Tindall also chose “Elizabeth” as a middle name for her second daughter, Lena Elizabeth Tindall, as did the Prince and Princess of Wales for their daughter, Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. Elizabeth is also the middle name of Charlotte’s mother, Catherine, and grandmother, Carole Middleton.
© Princess EugenieBoth of Princess Beatrice’s daughters, Sienna Elizabeth Mapelli Mozzi and Athena Elizabeth Rose Mapelli Mozzi, also carry “Elizabeth” as a middle name. The latest great-grandchild to honor the late Queen in this way is Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank‘s daughter, Adelaide Elizabeth Annina Brooksbank.
When revealing her newborn’s name, 14 days after giving birth, Eugenie shared on Instagram that her baby girl was “named after three people we love and admire past and present, including her Great-Grandmother who we hold close in our hearts.”
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