Why Did Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank Name Their Son Ernest?

Earlier this month, Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank announced the birth of their second son, Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank on Instagram, and in her post, Eugenie explained the family homages behind his name. “He is named after his great great great Grandfather George, his Grandpa George and my Grandpa Ronald,” she wrote. It was fairly easy to understand the inspiration behind at least two of those names. Jack’s father, George Brooksbank, died last year, and Ronnie Ferguson, the father of Sarah Ferguson and a longtime polo manager for the royal family, died in 2003. Then, of course, Ernest’s great-great-great grandfather was King George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1936.

It left commenters with some confusion—where were we getting the name Ernest from in all of that? Last week, Sarah cleared it up on her new podcast, Tea Talks with the Duchess & Sarah. During a conversation with her co-host, she explained that Eugenie actually drew inspiration from George V’s full name, George Frederick Ernest Albert.

“He’s done very, very well. He’s called Ernest George Ronnie,” she said to her cohost Sarah Thomson. “He’s Ernest because George the third [great-grandfather]’s middle name was Ernest, and also because it’s a fabulous name. And then George after Jack’s father and Ronald, Ronnie, after my father, which was really touching. When Jack and Eugenie told me, it was so moving that they put my dad in there. It was very kind, I thought—made me cry, of course.”

It’s not the first time that the couple has taken a roundabout approach to family homage. When Eugenie announced the birth of August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, her first son with husband Jack Brooksbank, back in February 2021, it was obvious who she was inspired by for his middle name. Her grandfather Prince Philip was ailing, and in only two months, he would die at the age of 99.

For the names August and Hawke, she was fairly cryptic, but she gave some clues that showed how interested she is in family ancestry. “He is named after his great-grandfather and both of his great x5 grandfathers,” she wrote in an Instagram story. She was referring to Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, whose full name was Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel. Hawke came from one of Jack’s ancestors, Reverend Edward Hawke Brooksbank, who lived in Healaugh, a small Yorkshire village.

Though they are both technically family names, both August and Ernest are somewhat unexpected in the context of Windsor history, so it makes sense that they also chose Ernest because it is a “fabulous” name, as Sarah mentioned. That said, a few different men named Ernest have played a role in the family’s modern history. George V, born in 1865, was himself likely named after Prince Albert’s father, Ernest I, sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in Germany, or Albert’s brother, Ernest II. There’s also the Duke of Cumberland, Prince Ernest Augustus, a son of George III who became a military hero and Tory politician in the 19th century.

In this way, Eugenie and Jack are more like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who chose names with personal significance and a somewhat attenuated connection to the family, as opposed to Prince William and Princess Kate, who gave their children more direct family names. For Archie Harrison, Meghan and Harry were inspired by arche, a Greek word that means “source of action,” and Harrison means, well, Harry’s son. Their daughter Lilibet Diana was named after her late grandmother and Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood nickname.

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