She’s urged parents-to-be to keep their baby name options ‘so close to your heart’ – and yet, Meghan Markle’s own husband nearly broke her important rule.
The Duchess of Sussex, 43, who shares son Archie Harrison, six, and daughter Lilibet Diana, three, with Prince Harry, gave her thoughts on the matter during the season finale of her Lemonada Media podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder.
She 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.’
Revealing her top guidance when it comes to baby names, Meghan insisted: ‘Don’t ask anyone’s opinion.’
Yet it appears her husband isn’t as fond of that golden rule, since he once hinted to a well-wisher that he was a fan of the name ‘Lili’.
During a walkabout on a joint engagement with Meghan when she was six months pregnant with Archie, in January 2019, Harry seemingly discussed name choices for their firstborn.
Mother-of-three Rebecca Blundell, who lives in Birkenhead and brought her daughter Lily, then six, and Lottie, aged two at the time, to the event in The Wirral, was one of the well-wishers who got to speak to the Duke and Duchess.
She revealed how Harry – who didn’t know whether he was having a boy or a girl with Meghan, as they wanted it to be a surprise ahead of Archie’s birth – asked how to spell Lily’s name.
During a walkabout on a joint engagement with Meghan when she was six months pregnant with Archie, in January 2019, Harry (pictured with his wife and their children) seemingly discussed name choices for their firstborn
Rebecca Blundell, who lives in Birkenhead and brought her daughter Lily, then six, and Lottie, aged two at the time, to the 2019 event in The Wirral, was one of the well-wishers who got to speak to the Duke (pictured right, speaking to the well-wisher) and Duchess (pictured left)
Ms Blundell told MailOnline: ‘Prince Harry came over first and chatted to my two-year-old then spoke to my six-year-old Lily.
‘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.’
In this week’s episode of her podcast, Meghan spoke to Spanx founder Sara Blakely about being a business owner and balancing motherhood at the same time.
During the finale, the topic of naming a company came up, as Meghan lamented that the beginning of a business was like starting a ‘SurveyMonkey,’ in trying to get everyone’s thoughts on the venture – including about the name.
Meghan said that the process of naming a baby is ‘not dissimilar to naming your company.’
In their biography of the Sussexes, Finding Freedom, Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand wrote that when naming Archie, the pair 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.’
She’s urged parents-to-be to keep their baby name options ‘so close to your heart’ – and yet, Meghan’s own husband nearly broke her important rule. Pictured, the Duchess with her son
Unlike many senior royals, Archie only has one middle name, Harrison, a fitting tribute to the baby’s father as it means ‘son of Henry’ or ‘son of Harry.’
As for Lilibet, her middle name is a tribute to Prince William and Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana, who tragically passed away in 1997.
However, it has been reported that the late Queen Elizabeth II was upset over the couple’s decision to name their daughter Lilibet.
Lilibet was the affectionate childhood nickname of the late Queen, said to have come about because as a child Princess Elizabeth could never pronounce her name properly.
It was a name that was only used by her parents, King George VI, the Queen Mother, and her sister, Princess Margaret, or those closest to her like her husband, Prince Philip.
At the time, 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.
Other sources told media, including the Mail, that while the Queen was called by her grandson and his wife, she felt she wasn’t in a position to say no.
One member of her staff says the monarch was ‘as angry as I’d ever seen her’ after the Duke and Duchess publicly stated they would not have used her private family nickname if she had not been ‘supportive’.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex visiting Birkenhead in January 2019
Harry and Meghan pose with their newborn son Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor during a photocall in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle on May 8, 2019
The illuminating revelation was published in the biography Charles III: New King, New Court. The Inside Story, by the Mail’s writer Robert Hardman.
During the season one finale of her podcast, Meghan also spoke about the hardships of pregnancy.
She revealed that she had gained 65 pounds during each of her pregnancies, and was still wearing high heels on royal engagements.
