# The name "Mountbatten-Windsor" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [December 16, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147 "2004-12-16T14:58:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/1 "2004-12-16T14:58:40Z")
The column doesn’t yet have it quite right. The name “Mountbatten-Windsor” was declared to apply only to descendants (in the male line) of Elizabeth II who are distant enough that they no longer qualify to be called “His/Her Royal Highness”. The reason for the change is that she is a woman, and, just as women change their names when they marry, so royal dynasties change when a queen regnant marries. There may be some technical question as to the surnames of the royal family, but George I through Victoria were of the House of Hanover, after which, through Victoria’s marriage to Albert, Edward VII and George V were House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Then George officially changed both the surname and the house name to “Windsor” during WW1. At the same time, Prince Louis of Battenberg changed his name to “Mountbatten.” So when Elizabeth married Prince Phillip, a descendant of Prince Louis, the House name would have changed to “House of Mountbatten” in the normal course. But Elizabeth felt that “Windsor” was a good name to stick with, and declared early in her reign that her descendants would continue to be known by that name. Later, because the Mountbatten family is also popular in Britain, she amended it to let her non-royal descendants use “Mountbatten-Windsor”. So the present situation is that it’s “House of Windsor”, but the surname is “Mountbatten-Windsor”. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/2 "2004-12-16T19:37:07Z")
Link to today’s classic column [What did Prince Andrew’s superiors in the Royal Navy call him?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_136.html) ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2004, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/3 "2004-12-16T23:25:54Z")
Arrggghhhh! _Mea maxima culpa!_ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Lioness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a87d85/32.png) [@Little\_Lioness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Lioness)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/4 "2004-12-17T02:32:39Z")
> [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Arrggghhhh! _Mea maxima culpa!_ Why? Your answer was correct, Cecil’s wasn’t. **Some** of her descendants will be Mountbatten-Windsor, but the royal descendants will be Windsors. [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3379.asp](http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3379.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/5 "2004-12-17T03:08:06Z")
> [@Little Lioness](#): > > Why? Because he forgot to include the link to the column being commented on. ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/6 "2004-12-17T17:54:42Z")
> [@Little Lioness](#): > > Why? Your answer was correct, Cecil’s wasn’t. **Some** of her descendants will be Mountbatten-Windsor, but the royal descendants will be Windsors. > > [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3379.asp](http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page3379.asp) I don’t get why Cecil’s answer was wrong. As an example, he said Andrew’s grandchildren would use the name Mountbatten-Windsor. That’s not right? ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/7 "2004-12-17T23:04:01Z")
He got the right final result, but the explanation was left out. ---
**Author:** ![Rrrr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dc4da7/32.png) [@Rrrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrrr)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2004, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/8 "2004-12-18T00:11:44Z")
I casn confirm, from having seen it written as such on a class list at St Andrews University, that Prince William usis the name Windsor. “William Windsor” being his sort of obvious/secret moniker for all things university. (information not obtained stalker-ly, it was a class I was in too) ---
**Author:** ![WelshRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/278dde/32.png) [@WelshRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WelshRabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/9 "2004-12-26T13:22:49Z")
Prince [Philip](http://www.royal.gov.uk/family/philip.htm). > [@John W. Kennedy](#): > > Prince Phillip ---
**Author:** ![WelshRabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/278dde/32.png) [@WelshRabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WelshRabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2004, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/10 "2004-12-26T13:34:23Z")
Sorry…that link is dead. [http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page413.asp](http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page413.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-name-mountbatten-windsor/280147/11 "2005-01-04T21:11:16Z")
And, of course, the ironic part of the whole thing is that **Prince Philip** is a Mountbatten only by adopting the surname when he became a British subject, and through the maternal line. He himself, like a wide range of European royalty and nobility, including Queen Alexandra (mother of George V and hence ancestress to the Royal Family), is a Holstein-Schleswig-Sonderburg-Glucksburg, the Danish royal house, a prince of whom was named George I of Greece, from whom Philip traces his male line.