What’s in a name?
Meghan Markle created confusion over what her real last name is earlier this year, when she told Mindy Kaling in the first season of Netflix’s “With Love, Meghan” that she goes by “Sussex” now.
The topic came up, again, during Markle’s appearance on Tuesday’s episode of the Bloomberg Original show “The Circuit.” The interview came out the same day as the second season of Markle’s critically panned lifestyle show.
“Give me a tutorial on royal naming conventions,” journalist Emily Chung told Markle, 44. “So like, are you Meghan Sussex? Are you Meghan, Duchess of Sussex? Is Markle even on your passport anymore? Is it, we don’t use that term anymore?”
“Well, when I got married, I changed my name,” the “Suits” alum replied.
“But it’s a complicated one for people to understand,” she continued, “because a last name is not typical in that construct.”
Prince Harry’s wife explained that Sussex is technically “not” a last name, “but it’s used roughly, or loosely, rather.”
“It sounds so silly to say. And I get it, because I’m American and then I went there and I started to understand,” Markle said. “But then you come back and as an American, you go, ‘I’m so confused.’”
“It’s a dukedom,” she told the host. “So, that’s the truth of it. But at the end of the day, you know, yes. My legal name is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, but Sussex for us works as our family name and it’s the name that we share with our children.”
Markle said in conclusion, “But yes, since we’ve been married, that’s what I’ve been called.”
The former actress was also asked what she’s learned “since becoming Sussex.”
“Well, interesting. What I learned about myself is no matter what my name is or what people call me, I’m still the same person,” she shared. “So that didn’t really, that didn’t change who I am. And maybe that’s probably the biggest distinguishing factor.”
When they got married in 2018, Harry, 40, and Markle received the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex from his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
When the couple left the royal family in 2020 and moved to the US, the queen let them keep their Sussex titles, but banned them for using the name “Sussex Royal” for their projects outside the royal family.
They adopted their Sussex titles as the surname for their children, Archie, 6, and Lillibet, 4, whose technical last name is Mountbatten-Windsor.
On “With Love, Meghan” Season 1 that came out in March, Markle made headlines when she corrected Kaling, 46, for calling her “Meghan Markle.”
“You know I’m Sussex now,” Markle told Kaling, before explaining that she wanted to share the same last names as her kids.
“You have kids and you go, ‘No, I share my name with my children,’” she told Kaling. “I didn’t know how meaningful that would be to me, but it just means so much to go, this is our family name, our little family name.”
Markle also got called “Meghan Sussex” during her interview on “The Drew Barrymore Show” at the time.
In an interview with People in March, Markle spoke about the significance of her “Sussex” title and last name.
“It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children,” she said. “I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”
Markle also gushed that the Sussex name is part of her and Harry’s “love story.”
