As Prince Harry and Meaghan Markle are doing the rounds at the fifth Invictus Games in The Netherlands, they’ve revealed the name Archie wasn’t always their first choice for their almost three-year-old son.
WATCH BELOW: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s cute moment at the Invictus games
In the leadup to the baby’s birth, it seems Meghan and Harry were torn over whether to name their son Archie, or the more classic-sounding Harrison.
Eventually, the couple chose to go with the modern option of Archie, a shortening of Archibald.
Meghan got chatting to a parent over the weekend, who had brought her son, Harrison, along to a reading session for children at the Invictus Games, which are proudly championed by Harry and Meghan.
Sherry McBain, a nursing officer in the RAF and a competitor in the Games, revealed that her wife, Mandy, had shared a sweet chat with Meghan about their son’s names.
“[Meghan] was like ‘Harrison, that’s Archie’s middle name,’” Sherry recalled to the PA News Agency.
“They were just having a chat because Harry and Meghan couldn’t decide between Archie and Harrison for the first name,” she shared.
Harry and Meghan surprised the world when they announced they were naming their son Archie when he arrived in May of 2019, opting for a shortened, informal version of Archibald.
Children of the royal family are often given more traditional family names, meaning the oddsmaker’s top pics were Arthur, James, Philip, and Albert.
He was given the middle name Harrison, an elongated version of his father’s name, and naturally, the Mountbatten-Windsor surname.
Their daughter was also given an informal first name, Lilibet, which is Queen Elizabeth’s nickname, only used by very close family. They reportedly refer to her as ‘Lili’.
Sherry spoke very highly of Meghan and Harry and their role in the event, at which Meghan read the participating children a story.
“Harrison was drawing pictures and telling her that it was a picture of a tram,” she said.
“I don’t think it quite looked like a tram, so she was very gracious and said, ‘that’s a brilliant tram’, so he was delighted.”
Harry also used the occasion to talk about the big ambitions held by their young son.
“When I talk to my son Archie about what he wants to be when he grows up, some days it’s an astronaut, other days it’s a pilot – a helicopter pilot obviously – or Kwazii from Octonauts,” he laughed, referencing the popular children’s show.
“But what I remind him is that no matter what you want to be when you grow up, it’s your character that matters most, and nothing would make his mum and me prouder than to see him have the character of what we see before us today,” he told the crowd.
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