Why did Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank name their son Ernest?

At the beginning of the month, the Princess Eugenie And Jack Brooksbank announced on Instagram the birth of their second son, Ernest George Ronnie Brooksbank, and in her post Eugenie explained the tributes to the family behind her name: “He is named after his great-great-grandfather George, his grandfather George and my grandfather Ronald,” she wrote. It was quite easy to guess at least two of the names that had inspired the choice. Jack’s father George Brooksbank died last year and Ronnie Ferguson, father of Sarah Ferguson and longtime polo manager for the Royal Family, died in 2003. Also, of course, Ernest’s great-great-grandfather was King George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1936.

Commentators were a bit perplexed: where did the name Ernest come from in all of this? Last week, Sarah clarified the matter in her new podcast, Tea Talks with the Duchess & Sarah. In an exchange with her co-host, she explained that Eugenie was inspired by George V’s full name, George Frederick Ernest Albert.

“He made an excellent choice. His name is Ernest George Ronnie,” he told the co-host Sarah Thomson. “Ernest because George III’s middle name [bisnonno] it was Ernest, and also because it’s a fabulous name. Then George as Jack’s father and Ronald, Ronnie as my father, which was really touching. When Jack and Eugenie told me, I was thrilled. Putting my father’s name on him was very kind, I couldn’t hold back the tears ».

It is not the first time that the couple has chosen to pay homage to the family in this way. When Eugenie announced the birth of August Philip Hawke Brooksbank first child with her husband Jack Brooksbank, in February of 2021, it was obvious who inspired her for her middle name. His grandfather, Prince Philip, was ill and would die in just two months, aged 99.

As for the names August and Hawke, the actress was rather cryptic, but she provided some clues that demonstrate her interest in family roots: “He is named after his great-grandfather and both of his great-grandparents,” he said. written in an Instagram story. He was referring to Queen Victoria’s consort, Prince Albert, whose full name was Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel. Hawke comes from an ancestor of Jack, the Rev Edward Hawke Brooksbank, who lived in Healaugh, a small village in Yorkshire.

While both August and Ernest are technically family names, they don’t often come up in the context of Windsor history, so in the end it makes sense that Ernest would be chosen because it’s a “fabulous” name, as Sarah put it. That said, the fact remains that some men named Ernest have played a part in the modern history of the family. George V, born in 1865, was probably named after Prince Albert’s father, Ernest I, Sovereign Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Germany, or after Albert’s brother, Ernest II. There are also the Duke of Cumberland, Prince Ernest Augustus and a son of George III who became a military hero and Tory politician in the 19th century.

In that sense, Eugenie and Jack are more like the Princes Harry And Meghan Markle, who chose names with personal meaning and a more subdued connection to family, than the prince william and to princess kate, who gave their children more direct family names. For Archie Harrison, Meghan and Harry were inspired by arche, a Greek word which means “source of action”, and Harrison means, in fact, Harry’s son. Their daughter Lilibet Diana it was named after her late grandmother and Queen Elizabeth II’s childhood nickname.