As the Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcome their new baby, Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, to the world, many are curious to know what the names of Prince Harry and Meghan’s second child and first daughter mean.
Lilibet refers to the Queen’s nickname within the family, and was first used when Princess Elizabeth was just a toddler and unable to pronounce her name correctly.
Her grandfather King George V would affectionately call her “Lilibet”, imitating her attempts to say “Elizabeth”. From then on, the term of endearment stuck, and she became Lilibet to her family, with the Duke of Edinburgh also referring to his wife in this way.
Writing to his mother-in-law after their wedding: “Lilibet is the only ‘thing’ in the world which is absolutely real to me.”
However, the Duke and Duchess have said their new baby daughter, now the Queen’s 11th great-grandchild, will be known as Lili for short, a spelling variation on the flower by the same name, lily. The flower is often seen to symbolise purity, commitment, rebirth and fertility.
Lili’s middle name Diana honours Harry’s late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, who would have turned 60 on 1 July this year had she not died in a car crash in 1997 when Harry was just 12.
The name Diana has its origins in the Indo-European root word to refer to the divine and is also the name of the Roman goddess of fertility, childbirth, hunting and the moon.
Lili’s cousin Princess Charlotte also has Diana as one of her middle names, as well as her own tribute to their great-grandmother, with her full name being Charlotte Elizabeth Diana.
While Elizabeth is the name of two of Britain’s longest-reigning and successful Queens, it also has religious connotations. In the Bible the mother of John the Baptist is named Elizabeth, coming from the Hebrew Elisheba meaning, “God is my oath.”
Lilibet’s older brother is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Archie meaning genuine, bold or brave is a shortened version of Archibald, while Harrison – a name originally used as a surname – literally means “Harry’s son”.
Their surname Mountbatten-Windsor was created in 1960, combining the surnames of the Queen and Prince Philip when they married.
Like Archie, who was not permitted a royal title when he was born in 2019, Lili is not permitted to be a princess nor have the title HRH, as they are both too far removed from the crown under rules set down more than 100 years ago.
However, they will be entitled to be a princess and a prince, both with HRH styles, after the death of the Queen, once their grandfather, Prince Charles, becomes king.