Why Prince Harry and Meghan Markle haven't trademarked Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet's names yet

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have not trademarked the names of Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, despite the rumours now doing the rounds online.

Because it is Harry and Meghan, the chatter has spread fast. Anything involving the Sussexes, their children, and their public brand tends to spark a wave of speculation within minutes, especially when royal titles are involved.

So, when fresh claims began circulating that the couple had quietly moved to secure Archie and Lilibet’s names, plenty of people assumed it was probably true.

After all, from the outside, it would not have looked especially surprising. The pair has spent years under intense public scrutiny, and any move involving their family name is almost guaranteed to make headlines.

Be that as it may, there is one key reason those reports have taken off, and it has much more to do with product wording than any secret legal filing.

According to People, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex haven’t trademarked either child’s name because, essentially, they never tried to.

The confusion appears to have started after Meghan’s lifestyle brand, ‘As ever’, launched a Mother’s Day collection that included tributes to both children. Two candles, Signature Candle No. 506 and Signature Candle No. 604, were linked to Archie and Lilibet’s birthdays, May 6 and June 4.

Consequently, that alone was enough to get people talking, but the bigger issue seems to have been how the products were described.

Earlier press materials and product descriptions reportedly referred to ‘Prince Archie of Sussex’s birthdate’ and ‘Princess Lilibet of Sussex’s birthdate’, which only added fuel to the speculation. However, when the collection went live on the ‘As ever’ website on 22 April, those royal titles were no longer used in the live product descriptions.

Instead, the candles were described as being inspired by ‘her son Archie’s birthdate of May 6’ and created ‘to honor her daughter Lilibet’s birthdate of June 4’.

The reason this detail is so crucial is that Archie and Lilibet’s titles have always had a slightly different path to other royal children. Unlike their cousins Princess George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis, for example, Archie and Lilibet did not have their royal titles announced at birth.

They were born as ‘Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor’ and ‘Miss Lilibet Mountbatten-Windsor’ while Queen Elizabeth II was still reigning.

When King Charles acceded to the throne in 2022, that changed: being offered the titles of prince and princess — now being listed as such in the royal line of succession. In March 2023, the Sussexes publicly confirmed they were using those titles in Princess Lilibet’s christening announcement.

At the time, a spokesperson for the couple said: “The children's titles have been a birthright since their grandfather became monarch…This matter has been settled for some time in alignment with Buckingham Palace.”

So, while the royal titles are real, the trademark claim is not.

And Meghan has previously made it clear that the family name itself carries huge meaning for her. Speaking to PEOPLE in 2025, she said: “It’s our shared name as a family, and I guess I hadn’t recognized how meaningful that would be to me until we had children. I love that that is something that Archie, Lili, H and I all have together. It means a lot to me.”

She added that the Sussex name ‘is part of our love story.’