Is Archie Harrison Short for Archibald Harrison?

The royal baby's name has a lot of people scratching their heads.

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Done obsessing over the tiniest member of the royal family yet? Good—neither are we. Master Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor of Sussex made the the universe that much cuter with his arrival on Monday May 6, and the Internet has been abuzz ever since. His parents, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, proudly introduced him to the world this morning at the official royal photo-call at St. George's Hall, and we have to say that Harry was totally right: he is absolutely to die for!

From his first public appearance to the official announcement of his name, little Archie is already causing quite a stir. The name of the Queen's eighth great-grandchild came as a shock to fans (and gamblers) expecting something along the lines of Philip or Edward. We like the name Archie, but inquiring minds want to know...is it short for Archibald?

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If Baby Sussex doesn't look like an Archibald, it's because he isn't—per the palace, it's just Master Archie, maybe even "Archiekins" to his mom. Archie is often considered a short version of Archibald, but it has also been known to stand alone in more modern times. While the name is anything but traditional for the royal family, it's actually very common; in 2017, nearly 3,000 of the little baby boys born in England and Wales were named Archie, making it the 18th most popular name in the area at the time. The name Archie has Scottish and German roots, and it means "genuine and bold." It might be a little early to call it since he's only a few days old, but I think the name suits this tiny royal perfectly.

What about Baby Sussex's second name, Harrison? Is Harry just a superfan of the actor behind Han Solo and Indiana Jones? The new dad definitely has a love for new adventures (like he and Megan's pending cross-continental move), but it's more likely that Archie just got the name because he's literally Harrison, which means "the son of Harry." Practical and straight to the point for sure, but little Archie might want to go with that other story when he's older—it's just a little cooler.

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Ineye Komonibo

Lagos-born and Houston-raised, Ineye Komonibo is a writer and editor with a love for all things culture. With an academic background in public relations and media theory, Ineye’s focus has always been on using her writing ability to foster discourse about the deep cyclical relationship between society and the media we engage with, ever-curious about who we are and what we do because of what we consume. Most recently, she put her cultural savvy to work as a culture critic for R29 Unbothered, covering everything from politics to social media thirst to the reverberations of colorism across the African diaspora.