Considerable thought and attention were put into selecting the name for Prince William and Princess Kate’s sole daughter, Princess Charlotte.
While her first name reflects a name cherished by the couple and serves as the feminine variant of Charles, paying homage to her grandfather, King Charles, her middle names, Elizabeth and Diana, serve as tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II, her great-grandmother, and Diana, Princess of Wales, her grandmother whom she unfortunately never had the chance to meet.
Interestingly, Princess Charlotte shares both her first and middle name with another relative: her first cousin once removed, Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer. Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer, who is 11 years old, is the daughter of Earl Spencer, Princess Diana’s brother, and his third wife, Karen.
When Lady Charlotte was born in August 2012, her dad Charles revealed: “We hadn’t settled on a first name before the birth, but Charlotte is a name we both love, and it really suits her. We knew that as soon as we saw her.”
Paying tribute to his late sister, he added: “And though it’s been 15 years since Diana died, I still miss her every day and I wanted her commemorated in the naming of our daughter.”
And when Princess Charlotte was born in May 2015, the Earl took to Twitter to write: “Perfect names. My 2-year-old Charlotte Diana will be thrilled at cousinly name-sharing. [She] is at an age where [she] thinks [the] world revolves around her!”
Lady Charlotte is the only child of her parents Charles and Karen, who married one year before her birth. She is the youngest of the Earl’s seven children; Charles has four children with his first wife Victoria Aitken, and two children with his second wife Caroline Freud.
Last month, he opened up about how protective he is of his youngest, especially because he was physically and sexually abused during his school days at Maidwell Hall Prep School.
Speaking to his late sister Diana’s close friend Julia Samuel on an episode of her podcast Therapy Works, Charles said: “I have an 11-year-old, I have many children, and my youngest one I do the school run with her in the morning and it’s a hoot, she’s really funny and fun.
“She’s quite bored of me asking, ‘Are there any strange teachers at school?’ She sort of rolls her eyes and says, ‘For goodness’ sake, we’ve been through this,’ but I will always be on guard.”
