From 30 October 2025 the former Duke of York will be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Buckingham Palace confirmed. The palace said the change would apply going forward.

The Mountbatten-Windsor surname was created in 1960 for direct descendants who do not carry the style HRH or the titles of prince or princess. After Elizabeth II’s accession in 1952, the Queen said the royal family surname would remain Windsor rather than Mountbatten, a decision reportedly greeted with annoyance by Prince Philip. He is said to have remarked that he was the only man in the country not allowed to share his surname. The Queen ultimately granted a concession to him. The official declaration dated 8 February 1960 states that descendants not bearing the HRH title or the princely style shall bear Mountbatten-Windsor, and the hyphenated form is used on the royal family’s website.

The hyphenated Mountbatten-Windsor form first appeared on an official document in 1973, in Princess Anne’s Westminster Abbey marriage register. The surname has also surfaced in other contexts, such as the Cambridges’ privacy case in France in 2012. Lady Louise Mountbatten-Windsor is publicly known as Lady Louise Windsor, and the Sussex children were previously listed as Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor and Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor before being named Prince Archie of Sussex and Princess Lilibet of Sussex on royal.uk. The site notes that, unless the Prince of Wales changes the policy when he becomes king, his grandchildren will use Mountbatten-Windsor. The name Windsor was adopted for the royal house in 1917 amid anti-German sentiment, when King George V issued a proclamation changing the house and surname to Windsor.