Have you ever wondered whether you might have royal blood running through your veins? According to historians, a surprising list of surnames could provide a clue.
The British Royal Family’s own surname is often overlooked. Officially, members of the family go by Mountbatten-Windsor. The “Windsor” element has been the family’s house name for centuries, while “Mountbatten” stems from Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh. Born a Prince of Greece and Denmark, Philip renounced those titles in 1947 to become a British citizen, adopting “Mountbatten,” his mother’s family name. When Elizabeth II took the throne in 1952, she decided to honor both traditions by double-barrelling the surname to Mountbatten-Windsor.
But beyond the reigning family itself, there are as many as 100 surnames that may suggest distant royal connections. These names include Abel, Alden, Appleton, Ayer, Barber, Barclay, Beverly, Binney, Brooke, Brown, Campbell, Carroll, Chauncey, Coleman, Cooper, Davis, Dickinson, Darling, Douglas, Dunbar, Edwards, Ellery, Ellis, Emmett, Evans, Farley, Fleming, Forest, French, Gardiner, George, Gerard, Gerry, Gibson, Graham, Hamilton, Haynes, Herbert, Hill, Howard, Hume, Irving, Jackson, James, Jenkins, Johnson, Kane, Kennedy, Ker, Key, King, Langdon, Lawrence, Lee, Leonard, Livingston, Lloyd, McCall, McDonald, Malcalester, Montgomery, Morris, Morton, Nelson, Nicholson, Nixon, Norris, O’Carroll, Ogle, Opie, Parsons, Patterson, Peabody, Pomeroy, Porter, Pratt, Preston, Quay, Randolph, Read, Reeve, Robinson, Rogers, Sanford, Shaw, Smith, Sowden, Stanley, Taylor, Townsend, Turner, Tyler, Valentine, Varson, Walker, Watts, White, Whiting, Williams and Young.
In addition, there exists another group of surnames more directly associated with aristocracy and dynastic power. Names such as Windsor, Tudor, Stuart, Plantagenet, Capet, Bourbon, Habsburg, Hanover, Valois, Lancaster, York, Bruce, de Valois, de Medici, Savoy, Orange-Nassau, Oldenburg, Glucksburg, Romanov, Baskerville, Darcy, Neville, Percy, Astley, Capell, Howard, Seymour, Grey, FitzAlan, Courtenay, Manners, Russell, Cavendish, Talbot and Spencer have appeared repeatedly across European royal and noble houses.
Of course, bearing one of these surnames does not guarantee royal ancestry. At best, it can serve as a starting point for genealogical research. Even so, the fascination with royal lineage remains strong, particularly given that Queen Elizabeth II’s bloodline can be traced back an astonishing 1,209 years across 37 generations. Some modern historians regard Æthelstan, born around AD 895, as the first true king of England, placing today’s monarchy within a lineage of extraordinary depth.
In other words, if you carry one of these surnames, you may not be a hidden heir to the throne — but you just might have a closer tie to history than you realize.