Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis have a cute nickname for one of their grandparents, and it comes from a royal title.
In many families, relatives old and young alike give each other nicknames, and while the Royal Family may have some more unique traditions, in some ways they’re much the same as any family. They break traditions sometimes, like with Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s ‘riotous’ Christmas celebrations that broke many historic royal traditions, but there are many they stick to as well.
And George, Charlotte, and Louis have given one of their grandparents an adorable nickname. According to royal author Robert Hardman, the three youngsters call grandad King Charles “Grandpa Wales”, a nod to his old title as the Prince of Wales.
Similarly, the late Queen Elizabeth called her grandfather King George V “Grandpa England” – it seems as though young Royals calling their grandparents nicknames based on their titles is commonplace in the family.
Meanwhile, the children are all known by more informal names at school, too. Take Charlotte, for example. Her official name is Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge, while she was christened Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. But at school, she’s known as Charlotte Cambridge. And likewise, her brothers are known as George Cambridge and Louis Cambridge respectively.
Similarly, her dad Prince William and his brother Prince Harry went by the names William and Harry Wales at school, while William even gave himself the name “Steve” while at the University of St. Andrews.
As for other nicknames, William calls Charlotte “Mignonette” while Kate Middleton calls her “Lottie”. William herself was called “Wombat” by his mother, the late Princess Diana, while Queen Elizabeth’s great-grandchildren used to call her “Gan-Gan.”
And the Royals still use the nickname even after the death of the Queen last year. In Harry’s memoir Spare, released this year, he recalled a moment when Meghan Markle bought a bauble with the Queen’s face on, before Prince Archie knocked it over.
He explained, “I roared. What the—? Meg had spotted it in a local store and thought I might like it.”He continued: “I held it to the light. It was Granny’s face to a T. I hung it on an eye-level branch. It made me happy to see her there.
But then, “I heard a smash and turned. Pieces lay all over the floor,” he wrote, explaining that Archie then tried to fix things by spraying water all over the broken pieces.
Harry continued, “Meg said: No, Archie, no — do not spray Gan-Gan! I grabbed a dustpan and swept up the pieces, all the while thinking: This is weird.”
In other royal news, here’s why George, Charlotte and Louis won’t be joining the rest of the family for Christmas dinner and here’s how Prince George scared the Queen while getting ready for Christmas in funny forgotten video.
