What do you give the man who has lost everything? Andrew Mountbatten Windsor may get a HYPHEN in his commoner surname – at the late Queen’s request

Buckingham Palace is said to be reconsidering how to style Andrew Mountbatten Windsor ‘s name in accordance with the late Queen’s wishes.

After his titles were stripped, the Duke was reintroduced to the world under the name Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – notably missing the hyphen traditionally used in the royal family‘s double-barrelled surname.

Officials confirmed that was the form of name agreed with him personally. 

However, royal insiders have now revealed that the Palace is reconsidering, after it was pointed out that the family name should, according to decades of royal precedent, be written Mountbatten-Windsor.

The issue may sound trivial, but it touches directly on the legacy of the late Queen and her 1960 Privy Council declaration, which officially established the family surname for those descendants who are not princes or princesses.

Two weeks before Andrew’s birth, the Queen signed a formal notice that was published in The London Gazette. 

It stated: ‘Now therefore I declare My Will and Pleasure that, while I and My children shall continue to be styled and known as the House and Family of Windsor, My descendants other than descendants enjoying the style, title or attribute of Royal Highness and the titular dignity of Prince or Princess and female descendants who marry and their descendants shall bear the name of Mountbatten-Windsor.’

The name was created to incorporate Philip Mountbatten’s surname into the Windsor line, a symbolic move reflecting the Queen’s marriage and the continuing link between her family and her husband’s.

That 1960 declaration meant that Andrew, who was born soon after, was the first royal baby officially registered with the Mountbatten-Windsor surname.

Now that he no longer holds the title of Prince or the style of His Royal Highness, many historians believe it is appropriate for him to revert to the precise version laid out by his mother’s decree – with a hyphen.

Royal historian and author Ian Lloyd told The Times they were surprised the Palace had ever published his name without one, given the ‘historic precedent’ and the legal wording of the Queen’s notice.

Examples of the hyphenated name appear on numerous royal documents. On Princess Anne’s 1973 marriage certificate, her full name is written as Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise Mountbatten-Windsor, a Princess of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 

The same styling appeared on the 2019 birth certificate of Harry and Meghan’s son, Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor.

But the Palace has not always been entirely consistent with punctuation when it comes to royal names. 

Even among the aristocracy, hyphens come and go – sometimes depending on tradition, preference, or even space on official forms.

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The late Queen Mother, for instance, was known as Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon on formal documents, but the hyphen was often dropped in day-to-day use, with newspapers and royal announcements regularly referring to her as Elizabeth Bowes Lyon.

Other well-known names such as Andrew Parker Bowles and Helena Bonham Carter also forgo the hyphen despite being double-barrelled, while the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber never used one at all.

However, the Mountbatten-Windsor case is expected to be treated differently because it stems directly from an official royal declaration rather than personal style.

According to royal sources, Buckingham Palace may now begin using the hyphenated form in all future references to Andrew’s name.