Speaking about how parents-to-be should keep their chosen name a secret until the baby is actually here, the former royal said:
‘I will say this to every woman in the world or every person in the world who’s going to have a child — if you have an idea about what you are going to name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart, until that baby is born and it’s named.’
The 43-year-old added:
‘Don’t ask anyone’s opinion.’
However, it seems her husband, Prince Harry, almost broke his wife’s rule when he almost revealed the name of their unborn child during her first pregnancy.
RELATED: Prince Harry gives rare insight into life with kids Archie and Lilibet
(Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex attending the second day of the One Year to Go Event before the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025. Pic: REX)
The incident allegedly happened as Prince Harry chatted with well-wishers when Meghan was expecting their first child.
During a walkabout on a joint engagement with Meghan when she was six months pregnant with Archie in January 2019, the royal seemingly discussed name choices for their firstborn.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, mother-of-three Rebecca Blundell explains she was one of the well-wishers who got to speak to the Duke and Duchess, and that she had brought along her daughters, Lily, then six, and Lottie, aged two at the time.
Blundell went on to reveal how Prince Harry, who at the time didn’t know whether he was having a boy or a girl with Meghan, asked how Lily’s name was spelt.
‘Prince Harry came over first and chatted to my two-year-old, then spoke to my six-year-old Lily,’ Blundell reveals.
‘Then as he was walking off, he turned back, he asked Lily if she spelt her name with an I or Y. I straight away thought that must be a name choice.’
Powerful name even without a title
In their biography of the Sussexes, Finding Freedom, writers Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that when naming Archie, Meghan and Harry had wanted something which was ‘something traditional, a name that was powerful even without a title in front of it.’
‘Archie, meaning strength and bravery, fit the bill,’ they added.
Meanwhile, a friend of the couple revealed, ‘with a laugh’: ‘They thought about Archibald for all of one second. He was always going to be little Archie.’
Meghan and Harry also broke royal protocol when they opted for only one middle name for little Archie, with Harrison being a fitting tribute to the baby’s father as it means ‘son of Henry’ or ‘son of Harry.’
As for Lilibet, who just celebrated her fourth birthday this week, her middle name is a tribute to Prince William and Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, who tragically passed away in 1997.
(Photo: Meghan/Instagram)
Her first name, on the other hand, is inspired by Harry’s grandmother, as Lilibet was the affectionate childhood nickname of the late Queen, said to have come about because, as a child, the then Princess Elizabeth could never pronounce her name properly.
At the time when Harry and Meghan revealed their daughter’s name, the BBC reported it had been told by a palace source that the Queen was not asked by the Duke and Duchess as to whether they could use it. According to the Daily Mail, other sources revealed that while the Queen was called by her grandson and his wife, she felt she wasn’t in a position to say no.
For Lili’s birthday this week, Meghan shared some never-before-seen pictures of her daughter, including ones of Prince Harry with his little girl, and Meghan cradling Lily on what looks to be a boat trip.
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