Do members of the royal family have surnames, and if so what are they?

Question

If the current Royal Family from Queen Elizabeth 2 are Windsor, what were the surnames of previous members of the Royal Family?

Answer 1

I think their surname is Windsor.  I believe they changed it from a German name (dont know how long ago)

Answer 2

The Royal Family are the "Windsor's" i've always thought/known since I was young.

Answer 3

Mountbatten-Windsor.

Answer 4

Wilson,Kepple and Betty

Answer 5

The royal family has little use for last names - after all, everyone knows who they are. Princess Diana did not take back her maiden name, Spencer, after her divorce; she continued to be known simply as "Diana." The queen signs official documents "Elizabeth R." The R stands for Regina, which means "queen." (Regina is not one of her given names; she was baptised Elizabeth Alexandra Mary.)

But the royal family does have a last name, and they do use it from time to time. This wasn't always the case. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was a member of the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, so her descendants were part of that dynasty. This, however, was not the family's last name. They didn't have one, because they didn't need one, so they didn't worry about it. Experts later worried about it for them and decided their name was probably "Witten" (or maybe even Wipper).

The royal family's official name, or lack thereof, became a problem during World War I, when people began to mutter that Saxe-Coburg-Gotha sounded far too German. King George V and his family needed a new, English-sounding name. After considering every possible name, from Plantagenet to Tudor-Stuart to simply England, the king and his advisors chose the name Windsor.

To this day, the British royal family is known as the House of Windsor. When Princess Elizabeth (the current queen) served as a subaltern in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, she was called "Elizabeth Windsor." Elizabeth married Prince Philip of Greece, whose family name was Mountbatten, and eventually she decreed that most of her descendants would be called Mountbatten-Windsor. Princess Anne used this name in 1973 when she married Captain Mark Phillips.

However, according to statements made by the queen, it appears that Windsor is still the official family name for any British royal who is styled "Royal Highness." The queen's youngest son, Prince Edward, the Earl of Wessex, has used the name Edward Windsor professionally. His wife calls herself Sophie Wessex.

Answer 6

the queen is mrs popadopulus / hoopladoopla or something similar, as her state hubby is greek

Answer 7

Windsor....for the Queen and immediate Royal Family.

Answer 8

Srtictly the Queen and her children are Mountbatten-Windsor but that's a bit cumbersome so they just use Windsor.

Victoria was a Saxe-Coburg and later members were Battenberg (which was Angisised to Mountbatten because of the First World War).

Answer 9

Windsor.

It was changed from Saxe-Cobourg in the first world war as it was thought that the royal family having a German surname was not a good PR move. Windsor was chosen purely because it was the name of one of their castles and sounded very British.

Answer 10

Windsor

Answer 11

They have been the Windsors since Queen Victoria, who made up the name because her married name (Saxe Coburg Gotha) sounded way too foreign for the time.  Elizabeth II should have become Mountbatten, but it was just after WWII and it was again decided it would be better for the family not to have a foreign name, so they kept Windsor. Previous to Victoria the family was of the House of Hanover.

Answer 12

Queen Victoria's maiden name was Kent. Edward Duke of Kent her father was the 4th son of George III who was of the House of Hanover Germany-family surname Guelph. Victoria, her mother, was of the House of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha. When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha, her married name was Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha.

Prince Albert George, her eldest son, the Prince of Wales, married Princess Alexandra, the 2nd daughter of King Christian 9th, of Denmark, therefore her maiden name was Denmark. When Prince Albert married her, her married name was Saxe Co-burg-Gotha, and later on King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra of Saxe-Co-burg-Gotha.

George V, his 2nd son,  married  Princess Mary of Teck, a kingdom of Wuttenberg in Germany. They changed the family name to Windsor on the advice of David Lloyd George the Prime Minister during the Great War 1914-1918, because the Kaiser of Germany at that time was Wilhelm II.  George V's second cousin. The Kaiser's mother was Princess Victoria, the eldest child and daughter of Queen Victoria, and after the death of Edward VII he was second in line to the throne of England. Unfortunately the homosexual Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of Edward VII died young, and because Wilhem was a meglamaniac, and considered unfit to rule of course, the ascendency passed to Edward VII's second son George V.

Elizabeth II married Philip of Greece, which is misleading because Prince Andrew of Greece his father was Danish. Princess Alice his mother was German, her maiden name was Battenburg, and she was the daughter of Victoria and Louis of Battenburg, and the grandaughter of Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, the 3rd daughter of Queen Victoria. During the Great War they changed their name to Mount Batten, and Louis her brother was Earl Mountbatten of Burma who was assassinated by the IRA. Prince Charles surname is Windsor-Mountbatten too, and when and if he

becomes King he will be King Charles III of the House of Windsor & Mountbatten.

Answer 13

Ys, the queens surname (and the decendents of her sons) is windsor (changed by her father just before the war from Saxe-coburg in order to sound less german) the mountbattens (also changed from the german version battenburg) Princess Anne and her children are 'phillips', not so sure about the other princesses

Answer 14

Windsor,

I'm guessing you're American???

Answer 15

The questioner asked what The Royal Family's surname was and the correct answer according to the Royal Proclamation by Her Majesty The Queen in 1960  is "Mountbatten-Windsor". However Her Majesty also decreed that the Royal House is and will be for Her and Her descendents, "The House of Windsor".

Answer 16

Windsor they changed their German surname (cant remember what it was) to Windsor in world war two because it sounded more English, as the royal family were German ancestry

Answer 17

Technically, the Queen and her immediate family don't have a surname, however, she is a member of the House of Windsor.

Her children should be members of the House of Mountabatten (Prince Philip's surname before he married the Queen)but a previous monarch (George V)made a declaration that all his descendants would be Windsors, however, the Queen had decreed that in the Male line her third generation of descendants who were untitled would have the surname Mountbatten-Windsor.

Prince Charles has said that when he ascends the throne he will be the first Monarch of the House of Mountbatten-Windsor.

Previous Royal houses in England since 1066 are Normans, Platagenent, York, Lancaster, Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (which was renamed Windsor during WW1 due to it being a German name).