\n<\/p>\n
In \u201cRomeo and Juliet,\u201d the star-crossed heroine asks: \u201cWhat\u2019s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n
People far less infatuated have wrestled with this concept for hundreds of years: How much should a name signify, and does it actually affect what or who a person is?<\/p>\n
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, would like a word.<\/p>\n
In her new Netflix series, \u201cWith Love, Meghan,\u201d the duchess, who is married to Prince Harry, told the actress Mindy Kaling that her last name was Sussex, correcting Ms. Kaling, who had referred to her by a more familiar name: Meghan Markle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so funny, too, that you keep saying Meghan Markle,\u201d Meghan said in the second episode of the series, which premiered last week. \u201cYou know I\u2019m Sussex now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Meghan cited the importance of sharing a last name with her children.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know how meaningful it would be to me but it just means so much to go, \u2018This is our family name, our little family name,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Kaling, who initially seemed surprised, replied, \u201cWell, now I know and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s understandable that Meghan, whose representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment, insists on usage of what she feels is the correct form of her name. But as with most Meghan-related news, the clip quickly made waves online as people took to social media to criticize her. Some commenters thought she was being pretentious, and others called her out for seemingly having confused her royal house with the family\u2019s surname.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
There was similar confusion over how to refer to the duchess after she and Prince Harry announced in 2020 that they would \u201cstep back\u201d<\/a> from their official royal duties and move to the United States.<\/p>\n Two days after the new series premiered, during an appearance on \u201cThe View<\/a>,\u201d Ms. Kaling said that she had \u201ca great time\u201d on the show, despite critics who felt like Meghan had behaved in a passive aggressive way toward her.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n There is still some debate, however, on Meghan\u2019s last name.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s either totally oblivious to what her actual name is, she doesn\u2019t understand it or she\u2019s lying,\u201d Hilary Fordwich, a royal family expert, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n Ms. Fordwich explained that while it isn\u2019t new for a member of the royal family to choose to go by their birth titles (Prince Harry went by Harry Wales during his time in the British army), that doesn\u2019t make it their family name.<\/p>\n \u201cBy established protocol, he can use Harry Sussex, which I\u2019ve never heard him use,\u201d she said. \u201cShe could choose to use Meghan Sussex, but it\u2019s not their surname. This was the issue in that Netflix clip.\u201d<\/p>\n However, Rachel Bowie, the royals editor for the lifestyle website PureWow, didn\u2019t think what Meghan said was problematic at all, adding that it\u2019s \u201ctotally within royal protocol\u201d and she didn\u2019t see it as a formal change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cEven though Archie and Lili were christened \u2018Mountbatten-Windsor,\u2019 Harry and Meghan are borrowing Sussex from their title to make up their last name,\u201d Ms. Bowie, who was previously the co-host of the \u201cRoyally Obsessed\u201d<\/a> podcast, said in a phone interview.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cI never read it as Meghan formally changing her name, but more as this symbolic thing for herself, that she feels this connection, between the four of them, that they move through the world under the name Sussex,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n Opinions have continued to roll in, even from relatives of Harry and Meghan.<\/p>\n Lord Ivar Mountbatten, a cousin of King Charles III and a reality television star on \u201cThe Traitors,\u201d claimed she had been wrong about her own surname in an interview he gave to Town & Country<\/a>, saying the family\u2019s surname is Mountbatten-Windsor.<\/p>\n \u201cHer children are called Archie and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor; they\u2019re not called Archie and Lilibet Sussex, because Sussex is a title,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And Thomas Markle, Meghan\u2019s estranged father, complained<\/a> to the Daily Mail<\/a> on Saturday about her decision to no longer use the name Markle, despite the fact that it\u2019s still fairly common for a woman to adopt her husband\u2019s name after getting married.<\/p>\n