Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis Won’t Use Their Royal Titles at Their New School
They start September 8!
To the world, they’re Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis—but at their new school, Lambrook (which the Cambridge trio start next month!), they’ll be known as George Cambridge, Charlotte Cambridge, and Louis Cambridge.
This surname, as you’ve likely figured out, is derived from their parents’ Duke and Duchess of Cambridge titles. (When Prince William and Prince Harry were in school, they went by William Wales and Harry Wales, a nod to their parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales.) According to The Daily Express, George and Charlotte were called George Cambridge and Charlotte Cambridge at their former school, Thomas’s Battersea, and they will likely carry their names over to Lambrook, which they start September 8. (How isolating would it be for a young kid to be known as prince or princess by their classmates?)
“It is royal protocol for royal children to be called by the title of their parents at school,” the outlet reports. “George, Charlotte, and Louis will therefore be called by their first name, followed by ‘Cambridge.’”
Let’s make this a little confusing—so, when Archie and Lili start school, will they then be known as Archie Sussex and Lili Sussex, as their parents are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex? No, actually. This would only happen if Archie and Lili carried royal titles like the prince and princess titles the Cambridge kids carry, The Daily Express reports; since they don’t, they’ll be Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Lili Mountbatten-Windsor.
And, like many young kids, all the Cambridge kids have nicknames: George was called “PG” by kids at Thomas’s Battersea and by his family at home. (“PG,” of course, stands for Prince George.) Playing off of the tea brand PG Tips, sometimes George is known by schoolmates and even his parents as “Tips.” Charlotte’s parents call her “Lottie,” and, at the 2019 Chelsea Flower Show, William was overheard calling her “Mignonette,” which translates to “little cutie” or “small and delicate” in French.
The nickname of "Lottie" was confirmed when William and Kate were on tour in Northern Ireland in 2019. A woman who met Kate that day later told The Daily Mail that Kate asked her about her son.
“I said, ‘he is four’ and she said, ‘oh, he’s the same age as Lottie,’” she says. “She calls her Lottie.”
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As for little Louis, according to Life & Style, his older siblings call him, adorably, “Lou Lou.”
Rachel Burchfield is a writer, editor, and podcaster whose primary interests are fashion and beauty, society and culture, and, most especially, the British Royal Family and other royal families around the world. She serves as Marie Claire’s Senior Celebrity and Royals Editor and has also contributed to publications like Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, People, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and W, among others. Before taking on her current role with Marie Claire, Rachel served as its Weekend Editor and later Royals Editor. She is the cohost of Podcast Royal, a show that was named a top five royal podcast by The New York Times. A voracious reader and lover of books, Rachel also hosts I’d Rather Be Reading, which spotlights the best current nonfiction books hitting the market and interviews the authors of them. Rachel frequently appears as a media commentator, and she or her work has appeared on outlets like NBC’s Today Show, ABC’s Good Morning America, CNN, and more.