It's a big day for the British royal family. First, not only did Meghan Markle and Prince Harry show off their newborn son for the first time, but they also announced his name. If you didn't hear, they are calling their baby boy Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, aka Master Archie. His name may sound completely original, but there just might be a connection between Prince George and baby Archie.
As Bustle writer Lia Beck previously investigated in January, The Sun reported on Jan. 26 that George's nickname is "Archie." Apparently, Prince William and Kate Middleton's eldest child blurted out his nickname while playing with Princess Charlotte and their grandmother, Carole Middleton, near the Middleton's Berkshire home. According to a woman who spoke with The Sun, she was reportedly walking her dog by them and the next thing she knew George was petting her pup.
As the woman informed the British tabloid, "I was asked by a police minder not to take a photo of the children, which I didn’t, but George started stroking my dog. Just to be friendly I engaged in a bit of small talk and I asked George what his name was, even though obviously I knew it."
His answer? As the woman told The Sun,
"To my astonishment he said, 'I’m called Archie' with a big smile on his face. I don’t know why he calls himself Archie but kids often play with their names and I think it’s lovely."
So what does this mean? Is "Archie" really George's nickname? Or is there a chance that George actually got confused after hearing the name uttered by someone else in reference to what Harry and Markle wanted to name their first child? Seeing as George is only 5 years old, maybe after hearing someone say the name "Archie" he decided he wanted to call himself exactly that. If that's the case, one can only imagine how Markle and Harry felt about George accidentally leaking their son's name months before his birth. It doesn't appear that anyone suspected anything other than George simply having a cute nickname, so, really, it all worked out in their favor.
Of course, George could have even been joking around with the woman when he revealed his so-called nickname. Hey, kids say the darnedest things, don't they? There's also the possibility that George made up the name for himself completely out of the blue and totally unaware that his aunt and uncle were going to call their firstborn by the same moniker.
If that isn't enough speculation, there's even a chance that Harry and Markle read reports about George's nickname and loved it, so they added it to their list of baby names. But if the latter is true, Markle and Harry choosing George's nickname for their son makes this mystery even more mysterious — and also super confusing. If George really does go by "Archie" from time to time, it could potentially be difficult to understand which "Archie" the royals are referring to during private family gatherings.
It would definitely be nice to know exactly how George's "nickname" came to be. Who else wants details on this origin story? All that said, it seems most likely that George was either told Archie's name or heard it in passing and decided to have some fun by being a kid and calling himself his cousin's name.
