So, what is Princes Charles, William, and Harry’s last name, anyway?
They live in the house of Windsor, but that name came from several generations ago, and from a mother. So it has changed since then, from what I hear.
His full name is Charles Philip Arthur George.
Windsor, except female descendents who marry. Descendents who are not titled HRH, Prince, or Princess will have the last name Mountbatten-Windsor.
It’s still Windsor
According to this site
The House of Windsor was established by the command of George V at the 17 July 1917 meeting of the Privy Council where his declaration read, in part, ‘all descendants in the male line of Queen Victoria, who are subjects of these realms, other than female descendants who marry or who have married, shall bear the name Windsor.’
The queen etc. have a homepage btw
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II_of_the_United_Kingdom, citing an Order-in-Council issued in 1960, says the Royal House is named Windsor; however, the personal surnames of descendants of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip is Mountbatten-Windsor.
Nobody lives in the House of Windsor; they are members of that House.
Windsor - adopted in 1917, as Tapioca Dextrin says, because it was more politically expedient in WW1 than Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.
“Throatwarbler-Mangrove”
But it’s spelled “Luxury Yacht.”
“You’re a very silly poster, and I’m not going to respond to you.”
Prince Edward heads his television production company as Edward Windsor, not Edward Mountbatten-Windsor.
I take it that it’s somehow symbolic that the webpage (linked to from these contact details) of Edward’s TV company, Ardent Productions, exists, but is entirely blank.
Unfortunately, this is one occasion where Cecil is incorrect. True, the statements he makes regarding the absence of use of surname and the 1960 Royal Warrant on what surname her and Philip’s descendants who come to require a surname will use are quite acurate. However, she explicitly made the 1960 warrant exclude the line of succession. If Andrew’s daughter moves to the U.S., becomes naturalized, and needs to sign her name, she will be Beatrix Mountbatten-Windsor (unless she changes it). But the fact of Philip having married into the Royal Family was explicitly stated not to have changed the House name, which is what they use as a surname on the rare occasions they require one; a 1964 Royal Warrant specifies that the House will continue to be the House of Windsor. And when Princess Anne married, she filled out the application for the marriage license as “Given name: Anne [three other baptismal names] Surname: Windsor Status: spinster,” in accordance with the above. Someday, when Edward’s second son’s daughter makes out her application, she’ll write in “Mountbatten-Windsor.”
Fine - except both of Princess Anne’s weddings were under the name Mountbatten-Windsor.
The Brittania site is correct as far as it goes - in 1952 the Queen confirmed that the family name would remain Windsor.
In 1960, Letters Patent were issued stating…
“while I and my children will continue to be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, my descendants, other than descendants enjoying the style, title or attributes of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess, and female descendants who marry and their descendants, shall bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor.”
Meaning that the royal family remain “the House of Windsor” and that male descendents without an HRH are Mountbatten-Windors.
In practical terms, the situation does seems to extend to the Queen’s children - with the exception of Prince Edward (who since his marriage has used the name Edward Wessex), when the Queen’s children have used surnames, they have used Mountbatten-Windsor.
At Princess Anne’s first marriage she filled in the register as just “Anne” - but the registrar added “Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise Mountbatten-Windsor”. Buckingham Palace later confirmed that “the Queen’s decision that this should be done”.
Prince Andrew also signed the wedding register as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and the banns for Princess Anne’s second wedding were in the name of Anne Mountbatten-Windsor. Note that Charles did not use a surname when he married - while on the subject of royal surname trivia - when Princess Anne recent appeared in court under the Dangerous Dogs Act (in regard of her dog, Dotty, before we start getting comments) she was named as Anne Elizabeth Alice Laurence.
The situation is (obviously!) rather vague, but it seems to be that the legal family name is “Windsor” and under normal circumstances no surnames are used by the Royal Family. When they are - they use Mountbatten-Windsor.
Not a lot of people know this, bit prince charles briefly changed
his name to “the charles formerly known as prince” in the
eighties, and later, to a small symbol, before reverting to
prince charles windsor in 1989.
Edward’s business card reads simply “Edward Windsor, Television Producer.”
Oops, correction to my previous post. chiefgnome is correct and my information is outdated. Since Edward’s marriage, he has referred to himself in business matters as Edward Wessex.