There are countless royal traditions and quiet conversations behind palace walls that outsiders rarely hear about.
One such revelation is that King Charles once reportedly asked Kate Middleton to change her name before marrying Prince William – but why?
The surprising detail surfaced in Prince Harry’s memoir Spare, where he shared the unusual request.
Kate and William tied the knot on April 29, 2011. Since then, their lives have transformed: they welcomed three children and, following King Charles’s accession, became the Prince and Princess of Wales. But before Catherine walked down the aisle in her Alexander McQueen gown, Charles had an unexpected concern about the soon-to-be royal bride and suggested she alter her name.
Why did Catherine Middleton face a name change request?
After stepping back from royal duties in 2020, Prince Harry released Spare in 2022, revealing behind-the-scenes palace stories. Among them was the claim that King Charles and Queen Camilla approached Kate before the wedding with a suggestion: switch the “C” in Catherine to a “K,” making it Katherine.
The reasoning wasn’t personal or about sounding more regal. Instead, Harry wrote that it was a matter of formality—avoiding duplicate initials. At the time, Charles and Camilla already had cyphers featuring a “C” and a crown, and palace insiders worried a third would cause confusion.
Despite this, Kate never adopted the change. Officially, she still goes by Catherine, though she remains widely known as Kate or Kate Middleton, the name the public grew familiar with when she joined the royal family.
Prince William’s response to the request
In Spare, Harry described how William reacted when the suggestion was raised. He recalled: “There were already two royal cyphers with a ‘C’ and a crown above: Charles and Camilla. It would be too confusing to have another. Make it ‘Katherine’ with a K, they suggested. I wondered now what came of that suggestion.”
He added: “I turned to Willy, gave him a look that said, ‘You listening to this?’ His face was blank.”
Kate, of course, ignored the request and continued to introduce herself as Catherine with a C.
Catherine with a C
Evidence of her preference appears often. When signing social media posts, she ends them with a simple “C.” In public, Prince William also refers to her as Catherine.
Royal biographer Robert Jobson wrote that, before her wedding, she even sent a lighthearted email to her close friends and family asking them to call her Catherine rather than Kate.
According to Jobson, it signaled that she recognized the shift coming in her life and wanted to prepare for a more formal role. “It was unclear if she disliked ‘Kate’ or simply wanted a name that matched her new position, but it showed a genuine desire to use her full name,” he explained.
Kate Middleton’s new royal title
Following Queen Elizabeth II’s passing in September 2022 and King Charles’s accession, William and Kate became the Prince and Princess of Wales.
Since then, many have referred to her as Princess Kate, a title she had not used previously. On her wedding day, she and William were named the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge by the late queen, and technically she could have been styled Princess William. Instead, she embraced the Cambridge title, as did their children, who used Cambridge as their surname at school. Now, they are believed to use Wales instead.
