At school, the three children of the Prince and Princess of Wales are not addressed by their royal titles. According to reporting by HELLO! magazine in October 2026, they are known simply as George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales — a practical arrangement that follows a long-standing royal custom, and one their father and uncle used before them.
This is a narrow, reported fact, and this article stays inside it. It explains why the surname is Wales, why it used to be Cambridge, what the precedent is, and how the children’s schooling has changed in 2026. It does not speculate about their private lives, their friendships, or what happens inside their classrooms beyond what has been reported. Where a detail could not be confirmed in the reporting checked — including how teachers address the children day to day — that gap is stated rather than filled in.
The short answer: Wales comes from their parents’ title
British royals with princely titles do not, in practice, need a surname. Prince George’s full style is His Royal Highness Prince George of Wales. But a school needs something to put on a class list, a name tag and a school bag label, and “His Royal Highness” does not work in a classroom. The convention, reported by HELLO! and corroborated by Page Six citing HELLO!, is to borrow the territorial part of a parent’s title as a surname.
Since September 2022, William and Catherine have been the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their children are therefore George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales at school. HELLO! reported that the children “don’t actually use [their royal titles] at school” and are known by the Wales surname “to their school friends, in a nod to their parents’ titles”. Page Six, reporting the same HELLO! story, put it the same way: the surname is “a nod to their parents’ titles, the Prince and Princess of Wales, which the couple were given after Queen Elizabeth II’s death in September 2022”.
The point, as the reporting presents it, is ordinariness. A surname that any class list might carry lets the children be registered, called and labelled like other pupils, without the formality — and the distance — that a title creates. The reporting does not quote the Prince and Princess of Wales explaining the choice themselves, and no such statement is claimed here. What is reported is the practice and its reason as understood in royal coverage: a practical arrangement, following tradition, designed to give the children a more ordinary school experience.
From Cambridge to Wales: what changed in September 2022
It has not always been Wales. When William and Catherine were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, their children used Cambridge as their school surname. Prince George started junior school as George Cambridge in September 2017 at Thomas’s School in Battersea, London, according to reporting at the time in People, summarised in later coverage. Princess Charlotte was likewise expected to be Charlotte Cambridge at the same school. The label on George’s school bag reportedly read “George Cambridge” — an ordinary-looking name tag for an unordinary pupil.
Everything changed in September 2022. Queen Elizabeth II died on 8 September 2022, and Charles III became King. The following day, Charles formally named William and Catherine the Prince and Princess of Wales. Their children’s formal styles changed with their parents’ titles — from Prince George of Cambridge to Prince George of Wales, and likewise for Charlotte and Louis — and, as a result, the informal surname they could use at school changed from Cambridge to Wales.
The change coincided with a move of school. In September 2022, all three children began attending Lambrook School, an independent preparatory school in Berkshire, near the family’s Windsor home. Reporting describes the children as starting at Lambrook as the Cambridge children and becoming the Wales children as the title change took effect — in practice, a new surname typed into the system and stitched onto name tags at the same time as a new school. The exact administrative sequence — whether the surname changed on the first day at Lambrook or in the days around it — is not pinned down in the reporting checked, and this article does not pretend otherwise. What is clear is the before and the after: Cambridge before September 2022, Wales from September 2022 onwards.
| Period | Parents’ titles | Children’s school surname |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 – September 2022 | Duke and Duchess of Cambridge | Cambridge (George Cambridge, Charlotte Cambridge) |
| September 2022 – present | Prince and Princess of Wales | Wales (George Wales, Charlotte Wales, Louis Wales) |
Prince Louis, born in April 2018, was still very young when the family used the Cambridge surname, and he began at Lambrook in the same September 2022 move as his siblings. The reporting checked does not record a separate “Louis Cambridge” school career in the way it records George’s at Thomas’s Battersea, and none is invented here.
The precedent: William Wales and Harry Wales
The Wales surname is not new. It is the same convention William and his younger brother Harry used when they were at school, because their father, Charles, was then the Prince of Wales. HELLO! reported that “this was also the case for Prince William and Prince Harry, who took on their father Charles’s former title, Wales, as their surname when they were at school”. Page Six reported the same precedent: “William, 44, and Prince Harry, 42, were called William Wales and Harry Wales when they were in school and in the military, given their father, King Charles, was the Prince of Wales at the time.”
The precedent extends beyond the classroom. William and Harry used Wales as their surname in the armed forces as well, where a working surname is a practical necessity in the same way it is at school. For background on Harry’s later relationship with the UK, see our report on Prince Harry’s GQ interview and the reasons given for a UK return. The point for this article is narrower: when George, Charlotte and Louis are called Wales at school, they are following the pattern their father followed, with the same logic — the parent’s title supplies the surname.
Other branches of the family have followed the same logic with different titles. Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, the daughters of the former Duke of York, have used York in the same way. The pattern is consistent: where a surname is needed, royals with titles borrow the territorial designation from a parent’s title. It is a convention, not a legal name change, and it does not replace the children’s formal titles outside school.
Why not Mountbatten-Windsor?
Readers often ask why the children do not use Mountbatten-Windsor, the best-known royal surname. The answer is in a declaration made by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 February 1960, summarised by Debrett’s: her descendants who do not enjoy the style of Royal Highness or the dignity of Prince or Princess — and female descendants who marry, and their descendants — were to bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor, combining the House name of Windsor with Prince Philip’s surname, Mountbatten.
George, Charlotte and Louis do hold those styles and dignities: they are His/Her Royal Highness Prince/Princess, with “of Wales” as part of their styles. The 1960 declaration therefore does not give them Mountbatten-Windsor as a working surname; it was designed for descendants who need a surname precisely because they lack a princely title. Mountbatten-Windsor is used by royals in that position — it is, for example, the surname now used by the former Prince Andrew — but it is not the school surname for titled royal children. The territorial surname (Wales, formerly Cambridge) and Mountbatten-Windsor are two different answers to two different situations, and they should not be confused.
Lambrook, Eton, and where each child is now
As reported in October 2026, the three children no longer all attend the same school. Prince George, 13, began at Eton College in September 2026, following his father, who was an Eton pupil for five years from 1995 and served as a house captain and prefect, according to HELLO!. William and Catherine accompanied George on his first day at Eton on 8 September 2026, HELLO! reported, with George moving into one of the school’s 25 boarding houses. Kensington Palace had confirmed earlier in 2026 that George would attend Eton, according to reporting at the time. For the rules reported around George’s time at Eton, including on devices, see our explainer on Prince George, Eton and iPad restrictions.
Princess Charlotte, 11, and Prince Louis, 8, remain at Lambrook School in Berkshire, where HELLO! reported in October 2026 that Charlotte was in Year 7 and Louis in Year 4. Lambrook is close to the family’s Windsor home, and all three children attended it together from September 2022 until George’s move to Eton. The surname position is the same at both schools: George Wales at Eton, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales at Lambrook, on the reporting checked.
What classmates call them, beyond the surname itself, is a limit of the reporting. HELLO! says the children are known as George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales “to their school friends”. No reporting checked quotes a teacher or classmate on whether first names alone are used in lessons, or how the surname appears on registers versus name tags. Those details are not stated here. Equally, nothing in the reporting checked describes the children’s school friendships, academic progress or daily routines, and this article offers no speculation about any of them. The Princess of Wales’s own public remarks about missing George while he is at boarding school, reported in October 2026, are the only family comment on the move found in the reporting checked, and they are noted here only as a reported remark — not as a window into private family life.
Frequently asked questions
What surname do Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis use at school?
Wales: George Wales, Charlotte Wales and Louis Wales, according to HELLO! reporting in October 2026, corroborated by Page Six citing HELLO!.
Why Wales, and why did it change from Cambridge?
The surname borrows the territorial part of their parents’ title. William and Catherine were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge until September 2022, so the children used Cambridge; when William and Catherine became Prince and Princess of Wales after Queen Elizabeth II’s death, the school surname changed to Wales.
Did William and Harry use the same convention?
Yes. William and Harry were known as William Wales and Harry Wales at school — and in the military — while their father Charles was Prince of Wales, according to HELLO! and Page Six.
Where do the children go to school now?
As reported in October 2026: George, 13, at Eton College from September 2026; Charlotte, 11, and Louis, 8, at Lambrook School in Berkshire. All three attended Lambrook together from September 2022 until George’s move.
Updated: 28 October 2026. School surnames are as reported by HELLO! in October 2026. If Kensington Palace or either school confirms a different arrangement, this page will be corrected on the same URL.
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