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Ever since the former Prince Andrew was demoted to plain Mr Andrew Mountbatten Windsor<\/a>, royal observers and historians have scratched their heads over his missing hyphen.<\/p>\n Buckingham Palace\u2019s official statement<\/a> announcing his new commoner status was clear, in black and white, that aside from losing his HRH and princely title and dukedom, he was also to be deprived of a punctuation mark that had been officially decreed by his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.<\/p>\n Princess Anne signed her 1973 marriage register as Anne Mountbatten-Windsor, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh\u2019s children use Mountbatten-Windsor, as do the Duke and Duchess of Sussex\u2019s children \u2013 all with hyphens.<\/p>\n Even in a family with numerous and ever-changing surnames \u2013 Windsor, Wales, York, Edinburgh \u2013 Mountbatten-Windsor has stood fast since Queen Elizabeth\u2019s decision 65 years ago that her descendants should be so named \u2013 in tribute to her husband, Prince Philip.<\/p>\n So why not Andrew? His surname was missing the hyphen when his new name was announced on 30 October in the fallout over his friendship with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.<\/p>\n When asked about the absence of a hyphen at the time, a palace spokesperson said: \u201cAndrew Mountbatten Windsor was the name agreed.\u201d<\/p>\n Royal sources have now confirmed that Mountbatten-Windsor will indeed use the punctuation mark between his two last names. It is understood the palace has examined the 1960 privy council declaration, which includes a hyphen, and will use one from now on.<\/p>\n In 1960, Queen Elizabeth declared that her direct descendants \u2013 other than those with the style of royal highness and the title of prince or princess \u2013 would use Mountbatten-Windsor when they needed a surname.<\/p>\n It was an important gesture to her husband, after she had decided on her 1952 accession that the royal family\u2019s surname would remain Windsor, and not Mountbatten, the Duke of Edinburgh\u2019s surname. Philip is said to have exclaimed: \u201cI\u2019m just a bloody amoeba,\u201d and complained he was the only man in the country whose children would not bear their father\u2019s name.<\/p>\n Eight years later she gave him a concession of a double barrelled surname joined by a hyphen \u2013 just days before their third child, Andrew, was born.<\/p>\n