You won’t see many birth certificates like this one, at least not in my family. The father and mother of the newborn child have occupations listed as “prince” and “princess.”
Click on the image above to view a larger version.
The birth has been officially registered in the City of Westminster.
Charlotte is fourth in line to the throne, behind Prince George who turns two on July 22. Prince Harry has been pushed back into fifth place, while Prince Andrew — the Queen’s second son and the new child’s great uncle — is now sixth in line.
17 Comments
One thing I don’t yet understand about the Royals’ surnames: I hear they have them but they don’t use them. Still, if they *have* them, wouldn’t surnames need to be included on official records such as birth certificates?
LikeLike
It depends upon how “royal” the person is. The immediate family don’t use a surname, for example Princess Charlotte. Less immediate family do use a surname as for example “Lady Helen Windsor”
Exceptions to this are when an alias or nom-de-plume are convenient, for example “William Wales” when Prince William was in the armed forces – and even then it was only a matter of convenience, not his “real” name.
I’m not sure of the demarcation line, buts probably whether or not you are a Prince of Princess.
LikeLike
I thought it was the other way round – officially they don’t have them – the “name and surname” you see above, are their official names. For practical purposes, sometimes systems need “surnames” so surnames get plucked out the of air. Harry is / was Captain Wales in the Army. The Royal House is the House of Windsor, even though the family surname would have been expected to change on the marriage of the present Queen. So “Windsor” also gets used as a surname.
But in the UK, officially, we can call ourselves what we like. All of us.
LikeLike
I think I finally get it. An English friend once struggled to answer my question about Queen Elizabeth’s surname and decided it was “Windsor.” Now it’s starting to make sense. I guess it really isn’t so problematic for genealogists and civil and/or ecclesiastical officials after all. For myself, I just have to think of surnames in a new perspective, differently from a North American one.
LikeLike
One more question: if you all can call yourselves whatever you want, can you also make changes to the first chosen surname at will? In my UK genealogical research a variety of spelling variants often come up that need to be accommodated, of course. There are at least fourteen I’ve noted for my Saxon maiden name, especially once the immigrant(s) got across The Pond, but a few variants exist in UK as well. Nobility often have multiple titles, one record showing a different title from another. Anyone I’ve known in UK and Ireland has a surname that seems to be connected to birth or adoption circumstances. But can anyone exercise the option of a complete change of surname he/she was born with, by personal choice, without recourse to legal proceedings, once it’s already been used officially? If someone wants to change his/her birth surname, is it a legal procedure with commensurate fee to pay to do it, or does anyone official care about that?
LikeLike
Before he married Prince William was “Prince William of Wales” – His father being “Prince of Wales” and when being “low key” he would sign “William Wales”. In the RAF he was “Flight Lieutenant William Wales”.
On marriage, Her Majesty created him as the Duke of Cambridge, so in short form his name became “Prince William, Duke of Cambridge” – at least in England and Wales (it’s different in Scotland and Northern Ireland!). It is a bit like changing your name by deed poll – from Wales to Cambridge.
This obsession with carrying a surname through the male line is so Western/male – centric! Most family tree programs can handle changing surnames so I don’t see why we should not.
LikeLike
Is there any significance to the placement of the title “His/Her Royal Highness”. For William and Charlotte it precedes the given names, but for Catherine, it follows her given names on this birth certificate.
LikeLike
It was the same on Prince George’s birth Certificate.
I suspect that it is for the same reason that she is not Princess Catherine (of Wales) but Princess William of Wales. Princess Charlotte is Princess Charlotte because she was born a princess; Catherine became a princess by marriage to a prince.
(Compare Princess Michael of Kent – who is married to Prince Michael of Kent, Grandson of George V – and Princess Anne, the Princess Royal, daughter of Her Majesty the Queen. Also traditionally married women in the UK were/are referred to by their husband’s names – for instance Mrs David Cameron – this practice is going/has gone out of use.)
LikeLike
Re Carol Menges comment about changing your name in the UK.
There was a lot of name changing during the 1914-1918 War due to anti German feeling. Even the Royal Family Changed its name!
On 17 July 1917, by a royal proclamation “Declaring that the name of Windsor is to be borne by his Royal House and Family and reliquishing the use of all German titles and dignities” George V declared:
London Gazette
Publication date: 17 July 1917
Issue: 30186
Page: 7119 (this comes up in page 2 of the issue – move back one page!)
LikeLike
Polly, Thank you for your in depth answer! Now I remember why this came up for me in the first place many years ago; my memory was jogged because of your quoting George V. I’d been confused by the change. I’d heard the royal family’s surname before WWI and it all-of-a-sudden changed in the early 20th century, and I wondered which name applied or if both names were used (since they were still relatives of the German part of the family), or what–and I didn’t think of the war connection at all. For sure I hadn’t heard the king’s proclamation. ‘Makes great sense now. Thank you again!
LikeLike
In this day and age, why is the certificate handwritten?
LikeLike
Handwritten because the registrar went to Kensington Palace rather than the Duke of Cambridge going to her office. I believe at the offices they do have computers – my father’s death was registered (at a registrars office) via what looked like a custom Lotus Notes application.
LikeLike
Not only hand written, but written with a “fountain pen” (not a ball point). The registrar at my daughters wedding told me that the original certificate(s) are hand written using a high iron content archival quality ink, which is longer lasting than anything that can be done electronically / mechanically. The original records are still held in paper copy rather than on computer.
LikeLike
To be accurate , that isn’t a birth certificate – it is the original register entry of birth which normally would not be seen outside of the registration service once it has been completed and signed. Birth certificates are certified copies of the information contained in the register entry.
It is handwritten because when conducting a registration away from the office as in this case it is far easier to just take a blank form and a pen rather than the logistical effort of laptops, secure connections, printers and forms that would otherwise be needed for something that probably took about 5 minutes to do.
The registrar would transfer the details to the computer system on their return to the office and the original document (the one shown) will go into the vault. Any certificates roduced subsequently can then be computer generated.
LikeLike
The Royal family “surname” officially is Windsor after July 1917 when it was changed from Saxe Coburg Gotha by George V in light of the anti-German sentiment during WWI. Several members of the Queen’s immediate family use a double barreled Mountbatten-Windsor as their personal surname. I think it was The Princess Royal, then known as Princess Anne who first used this surname on the certificate when she married Mark Phillips. Since then all of the Queen’s children and their family have used it at sometime especially in legal documents.
As for Catherine’s entry on the birth certificate. She was not born a royal so therefore is only a Princess/HRH by marriage. Her official name is Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge or Her Royal Highness, The Duchess of Cambridge.
LikeLike
Dick, thanks so much for posting this–it was fun to read.
I liked your comment about the parent’s occupation. And it ended up being quite educational with comments from English heritage followers…
LikeLike
Agreed!
LikeLike