Meghan Markle has one tip for expecting parents who are deciding on a name for their baby: keep it private.
“I will say this to every woman in the world, every person in the world who’s going to have a child,” Markle advised on this morning’s episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. “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.”
The mom-of-two said the process was “not dissimilar” to naming a business, remarking on how her guest, Spanx founder Sara Blakely, came up with her company’s unique name.
“I love that at the beginning of Spanx, you held [the name] close, because it becomes like SurveyMonkey,” Markle, 43, told Blakely, 54.
She explained that choosing a name for a business (or a child) can trigger a fear of “not getting everyone’s approval.” Her advice on naming either: “Don’t ask anyone’s opinion!”
For the Sussexes, the two processes might feel especially similar, considering their foundation, Archewell, shares a first syllable with the name of their six-year-old son, Archie.
Shortly before launching Archewell in 2020, the couple explained in a statement that they connected to “the idea of ‘arche’—the Greek word meaning ‘source of action,” which they interpreted as a call “to do something of meaning, to do something that matters.” That idea became the inspiration for naming both their son and their foundation.
Harry and Meghan made waves when they revealed their son’s first and middle name, Archie Harrison, shortly after his 2019 birth. While Harry’s relatives in the direct line of royal succession, including his parents, grandparents, and brother, have typically chosen baby names from a small pool of existing family monikers, both of Archie Harrison’s names were new additions to the family tree.
The name defied many British oddsmakers, who had predicted the Sussexes would opt for something more traditional, like Arthur, James, or Philip.
Though the couple has never shared the exact origins of their son’s middle name, the connection is more obvious: the name “Harrison” means “son of Harry.”
Ironically, the Sussexes didn’t practice Meghan’s baby naming advice when choosing a name for their daughter, Lilibet Diana. Instead, before their daughter’s birth, they privately revealed her name to the late Queen Elizabeth II, as “Lilibet” was her nickname among family.
Shortly after Lilibet’s birth in 2021, a spokesperson for the Sussexes told People that the queen was the first family member with whom Harry shared the name idea, and that “had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.” Queen Elizabeth II passed away the following year.
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