Why Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis use Wales as their surname at school

For three children at the heart of the British royal family, school life comes with an unusual bit of paperwork: they do not generally use their royal titles in the classroom.

Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis are known to school friends as George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales. The surname is taken from the title held by their parents, Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales.

The arrangement has a long royal precedent. William and his younger brother, Prince Harry, were known as William Wales and Harry Wales when they were at school, when their father, now King Charles III, was the Prince of Wales.

George has now started at Eton

The question of George’s school name has come into focus again as the 13-year-old begins a new chapter at Eton College.

George started at the Berkshire boarding school on 8 September 2026, accompanied by William and Catherine. He had previously attended Lambrook School, where he was a pupil alongside his younger sister and brother. Eton is also the school attended by both William and Harry.

Meanwhile, Princess Charlotte, 11, is in Year 7 and Prince Louis, eight, is in Year 4 at Lambrook Prep School in Berkshire, close to the family’s Windsor home, Forest Lodge.

Although George, Charlotte and Louis were born with the titles Prince or Princess and the style of His or Her Royal Highness, those formal titles are not normally used by their classmates and teachers. In everyday school life, the simpler names George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales are used.

That practice gives the children a name that works in an ordinary classroom setting while still reflecting their family’s current titles.

Why their surname changed from Cambridge to Wales

The children’s school names have changed before.

When William and Catherine were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their children used Cambridge as a surname at school. George and Charlotte were known as George Cambridge and Charlotte Cambridge, while Louis also adopted Cambridge when he began school.

That changed in September 2022 after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

King Charles III became monarch, while William became the Prince of Wales and Catherine became the Princess of Wales. Their children consequently began using Wales in place of Cambridge when a surname was required. The change was reflected in the children’s formal titles as well, becoming Prince George of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Louis of Wales.

It follows the same convention used by William and Harry during their own school years. At the time, their father Charles held the title Prince of Wales, so the brothers used Wales as their surname.

William spent five years at Eton

George is now following a path familiar to his father.

William entered Eton in 1995 and spent five years there before going on to study at the University of St Andrews. During his time at the school, he served as a house captain and prefect.

Harry joined Eton three years after his brother.

George’s arrival on 8 September marked another link between father and son. William and Catherine accompanied him on his first day, and George moved into one of Eton’s 25 boarding houses. The school is only a short distance from the Wales family’s home in Windsor.

Eton is an all-boys boarding school with a long-established tradition, and George’s arrival has attracted considerable attention because of his position as second in line to the throne.

Why Eton was considered a strong fit for George

Melanie Sanderson, managing editor of the Good Schools Guide, previously offered her assessment of the decision.

She highlighted Eton’s unusually broad range of opportunities, including its academic, sporting and theatrical offerings, as well as the international backgrounds of many of its pupils. She also pointed to the school’s strong tradition of chapel and its relevance to George’s future role.

Sanderson noted that Eton’s all-boys environment may also have appealed to William and Catherine because it gives parents a more defined setting in which to consider their child’s social circle. Eton has social events with nearby girls’ schools, including Wycombe Abbey, while regular classes remain single-sex.

In her view, Eton was an obvious choice for George and one she would have placed at the top of her list as an educational consultant.

Sanderson has also said that George was well prepared for the move after his years at Lambrook, including experience with boarding routines. Eton’s proximity to the family home in Windsor was another practical consideration.

The complicated question of a royal surname

The Wales surname is not technically the same thing as the royal family’s official family name.

Members of the British royal family often do not need to use a surname at all. Their titles, names and styles generally identify them without one. The official royal family name, however, is Windsor.

The name dates back to 1917, when King George V changed the royal family’s name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. At a Privy Council meeting on 17 July 1917, George V declared that qualifying male-line descendants of Queen Victoria would bear the name Windsor. The change came during the First World War, when anti-German feeling was strong.

Queen Elizabeth II confirmed Windsor when she became monarch in 1952.

But eight years later, she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, decided that their direct descendants should have a way of being distinguished from the wider House of Windsor without changing the name of the royal house itself.

That led to the creation of Mountbatten-Windsor.

Where Mountbatten-Windsor fits in

In 1960, it was declared in the Privy Council that the Queen’s descendants who did not hold the style of Royal Highness or the title of Prince or Princess, along with female descendants who married, would use the surname Mountbatten-Windsor when a surname was needed.

The name incorporated Prince Philip’s family name. Philip, born Prince Philip of Greece, had taken the surname Mountbatten after becoming a naturalised British citizen in 1947.

For most members of the royal family with a prince or princess title, however, a surname remains largely unnecessary.

That is why George, Charlotte and Louis do not ordinarily introduce themselves at school as Mountbatten-Windsors. Their school surname is instead derived from their parents’ title: Wales.

The distinction can be seen elsewhere in the family.

Lady Louise Windsor, the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, uses Mountbatten-Windsor when she needs a surname. She has, for example, been listed under that name in connection with her carriage driving competitions.

Prince Harry and Meghan’s children, Archie and Lilibet, were also known as Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor before they were entitled to use the titles Prince and Princess following King Charles’s accession in 2022.

In March 2023, Harry and Meghan confirmed that the children would use their prince and princess titles in formal settings, while those titles would not necessarily be used in everyday conversation.

A royal tradition adapted for school life

The different names used by George, Charlotte and Louis can therefore be confusing at first glance, but there is a clear pattern behind them.

Their official royal identities remain Prince George of Wales, Princess Charlotte of Wales and Prince Louis of Wales. At school, where a surname is useful and royal titles are generally set aside, they use George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales.

Before William became Prince of Wales, the same children were known as George Cambridge, Charlotte Cambridge and Louis Cambridge, reflecting their parents’ former titles as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

And before them, William and Harry used Wales at school because their father was then the Prince of Wales.

The names have changed with the family’s titles, but the underlying tradition has remained remarkably consistent: when a royal child needs a more conventional surname, the family can use the title of the parent as a practical alternative to the formal royal style.