Princess Charlotte shares very similar full name with unexpected cousin

September 2024 · 4 minute read

The Prince and Princess of Wales' daughter was christened Charlotte Elizabeth Diana

A great deal of thought and care went into naming Prince William and Princess Kate's only daughter, Princess Charlotte. 

While her first name is clearly a moniker the couple love and is the feminine version of Charles, a tribute to her grandfather King Charles, Charlotte's middle names are Elizabeth and Diana – again both tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II, Charlotte's great-grandmother, and Diana, Princess of Wales, the grandmother she sadly never got to meet.

But Princess Charlotte also shares the same first and middle name with another relative: her first cousin once removed, Lady Charlotte Diana Spencer, the 11-year-old daughter of Princess Diana's brother Earl Spencer and his third wife Karen. 

When Lady Charlotte was born in August 2012, her dad Charles revealed: "We hadn't settled on a first name before the birth, but Charlotte is a name we both love, and it really suits her. We knew that as soon as we saw her."

Paying tribute to his late sister, he added: "And though it's been 15 years since Diana died, I still miss her every day and I wanted her commemorated in the naming of our daughter."

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And when Princess Charlotte was born in May 2015, the Earl took to Twitter to write: "Perfect names. My 2-year-old Charlotte Diana will be thrilled at cousinly name-sharing. [She] is at an age where [she] thinks [the] world revolves around her!"

WATCH: Charles Spencer shares very rare video of youngest child Charlotte Diana

Lady Charlotte is the only child of her parents Charles and Karen, who married one year before her birth. She is the youngest of the Earl's seven children; Charles has four children with his first wife Victoria Aitken, and two children with his second wife Caroline Freud.

Last month, he opened up about how protective he is of his youngest, especially because he was physically and sexually abused during his school days at Maidwell Hall Prep School.

LISTEN: Inside Princess Kate's private lunch with King Charles before shock cancer announcement

Speaking to his late sister Diana's close friend Julia Samuel on an episode of her podcast Therapy Works, Charles said: "I have an 11-year-old, I have many children, and my youngest one I do the school run with her in the morning and it's a hoot, she's really funny and fun. 

"She's quite bored of me asking, 'Are there any strange teachers at school?' She sort of rolls her eyes and says, 'For goodness' sake, we've been through this,' but I will always be on guard." 

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