Meghan Markle is urging expectant parents to keep their baby name choices private until after birth, sharing the advice during the season finale of her podcast Confessions of a Female Founder. The Duchess of Sussex, who has two children with Prince Harry-Archie and Lilibet-emphasized that names should be guarded against outside opinions.
"It's no different, and I will say this to every woman in the world or every person in the world who's going to have a child," Markle said in conversation with Spanx founder Sara Blakely. "If you have an idea about what you are going to name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart, until that baby is born and it's named."
"Don't ask anyone's opinion," she added firmly, likening the process of choosing a baby name to naming a company. She recalled how in the early days of a startup, input from others can overwhelm foundational decisions-something she said is equally true of naming a child.
The episode, which concluded the first season of Meghan's Lemonada Media podcast, featured a candid discussion between the two entrepreneurs about the pressures of balancing business ownership with motherhood. Markle also opened up about her physical challenges during pregnancy, revealing she gained 65 pounds during both of her pregnancies with Archie and Lilibet.
In the royal biography Finding Freedom, authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand noted that the couple chose "something traditional, a name that was powerful even without a title in front of it." They wrote that Archie "fit the bill," meaning strength and bravery, while a friend said, "They thought about Archibald for all of one second. He was always going to be little Archie."
Archie's middle name, Harrison-"son of Henry" or "son of Harry"-was selected as a direct tribute to his father. Their daughter, born in June 2021, was named Lilibet Diana, honoring Queen Elizabeth II and the late Princess Diana.
However, the choice of "Lilibet," the Queen's childhood nickname, reportedly stirred controversy. According to Charles III: New King, New Court by Robert Hardman, one palace staffer said the Queen was "as angry as I'd ever seen her" after the Duke and Duchess publicly claimed they wouldn't have used the name without her support. Some sources suggested the Queen felt she couldn't say no when consulted.
