Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have finally debuted their new son to the public two days after his birth last Monday, May 6. The royal couple also revealed that their baby boy would be named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. He will not have an official title attached to his name, unlike his dad.
Instead, Archie will be simply referred to as Lord or Master Archie as a matter of courtesy. He may also eventually inherit one of this father's title, Earl of Dumbarton, but Meghan and Harry's son will not be addressed as Prince Archie, according to the Telegraph.
House Sussex posted the photo of Archie's first meeting with his great-grandparents, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, on Instagram. They also confirmed the baby boy's full name on the social media platform.
It's unclear why Meghan and Harry chose Archie for their first-born child because it certainly isn't an aristocratic-sounding name. According to The Guardian, the name is of German origin, which means "bold," "brave" and "genuine."
Bettors and oddsmakers were sure that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex would name their baby Alexander. In America, Archie is mostly associated with a red-haired comic character, Archie Andrews.
When the Sussex couple revealed the baby's full name, people in America made the same joke, according to Time. The public is expecting Baby Sussex to also have red hair, just like his father and the comic character.
"The choice definitely shows their personality, but also to a certain extent, the changes in the royal family as a whole, where things have become - especially since Princess Diana's death - more open," Cleveland Evans, a professor at Bellevue University said. "They probably want to modernize it and want the royal family to be seen as regular people, which is why they'd choose a name like Archie, which at the moment is a regular, everyday British boy's name."
However, Harrison means "son of Harry" thus the baby's second name is quite fitting. Some of the royal family members, on the other hand, have been using Mountbatten-Windsor since the 1960s.
Meghan and Prince Harry's choice to give their son just two names is also of royal tradition. Prince William and Kate Middleton's children, Archie's cousins, have three names, apart from their titles. Prince Harry's full name also consists of four: Henry Charles Albert David.
Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, a British and an American citizen, is currently the seventh in line to the throne. He is the first multi-racial baby in the British monarchy.
