It’s perhaps the least serious question Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has faced in years. Does his newly adopted surname contain a hyphen?
When Buckingham Palace announced that The King’s brother would lose his title of Duke of York as well as his HRH and Prince, the statement said he would be known as ‘Andrew Mountbatten Windsor’.
However, now it’s being reported that the new name of the former prince should contain a hyphen and read Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
Historians are citing precedent as the reason for the apparent need for change.
The surname was adopted in 1960, the year of Andrew’s birth, for all male line descendants of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip who didn’t have a royal title.
In the official Declaration, which brought the name into being, it is given as Mountbatten-Windsor. And several male line descendants without royal titles have used that version including The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’s daughter who is known as Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor.
When the son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex was born in May 2019, he was known as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor. After the accession of King Charles III, he was entitled to be known as HRH Prince Archie, a decision his parents made for him in March 2023.
However, despite these two recent uses of Mountbatten-Windsor, there is no hard and fast rule on how the name is used. In reality, it remains a personal choice. The name is no less legal if there is no hyphen.
However, some historians are claiming that precedent means it should be hyphenated.
In day to day business, one of the main reasons for clarity is for identification purposes. However, it is highly unlikely that anyone would fail to identify Andrew Mountbatten Windsor because of a missing hyphen.
It’s understood that the decision not to use a hyphen came from the former prince himself. Whether a change happens remains to be seen.
Interestingly, if Andrew Mountbatten Windsor were to marry again, his marriage certificate would have to include his former name meaning that although he is no longer allowed to use it, when it comes to registration, it will have to be included nonetheless.
The titles of Andrew’s two daughters remain unaffected. Under 1917 Letters Patent, issued by King George V, the grandchildren in the male line of a Monarch are HRH and Prince or Princess. So Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses because of those rules.
However, Andrew’s former wife gave up her courtesy title and is now known by her maiden name of Sarah Ferguson.
The use of a hyphen does seem a trifling matter in what has proved a torrid and controversial time for the Royal Family. Andrew Mountbatten Windsor lost his titles after fresh a
