Why George, Charlotte, and Louis drop royal titles at school

Princess Kate and William's three children are heading back to the classroom this week after their summer break. 

Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis have returned to Lambrook Prep School in Berkshire where George begins his final year before moving on to a new school next summer.

Although the siblings were born with royal titles, life at Lambrook is refreshingly down-to-earth. 

Among classmates, they’re simply known as George Wales, Charlotte Wales, and Louis Wales, a nod to their parents’ titles, the Prince and Princess of Wales, which they inherited after the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

It’s a tradition that runs through the generations. When William and Kate were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their children went by the surname Cambridge at their former schools. 

Similarly, both Prince William and Prince Harry grew up using Wales as their surname, taken from their father’s then-title, Prince of Wales.

After enjoying part of their summer break at Balmoral, King Charles’s beloved Scottish estate, the kids are now settling back into school life.

Often, senior royals don’t use one at all, instead going by their title, name, and the style of His or Her Royal Highness. But history shows the story behind their surname is far more layered.

Back in 1917, King George V declared that all male-line descendants of Queen Victoria who were subjects of the crown would bear the name Windsor. 

This remained in place until Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, when she and her husband, the late Duke of Edinburgh, decided their own direct descendants should carry a name that reflected both sides of the family.

In 1960, it was formally agreed at a meeting of the Privy Council that while the Royal House would continue to be known as Windsor, the Queen’s descendants without royal styles and titles would instead carry the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

It means that while George, Charlotte and Louis use Wales at school, their official family surname remains Mountbatten-Windsor.