Former prince Andrew gains a hyphen in his name

He lost his titles, his house and his reputation, but the old Prince Andrew gained the dash.

The royal family is now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and not Andrew Mountbatten Windsor as previously announced.

The change is due to the style of the name being inspired by the late Queen Elizabeth II. It makes it fit the double-barreled surname that Elizabeth chose for her descendants 65 years ago.

It combines the royal family’s name Windsor, chosen by King George V in 1917, with Mountbatten, the surname of the queen’s husband, Prince Philip.

The Queen had initially decided to have Windsor alone, leading her husband to complain that he was the only man in England not allowed to name his children after her.

Elizabeth relented, saying in an official statement on 8 February 1960 – days before her son Andrew was born – that: “My grandchildren who have the title or quality of Royalty and the title of Prince or Princess, and my female grandchildren who marry and their descendants, will bear the name Mountbatten-Windsor.”

The hyphen was added after palace officials reviewed the 1960 declaration.

King Charles III announced on October 30 that he would strip his brother of his titles and remove him from the royal residence near Windsor Castle over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Pressure was mounting on the palace to oust the 65-year-old prince from his Royal Lodge home amid new revelations about his friendship with Epstein and renewed interest in the sexual abuse allegations of Virginia Roberts Giuffre, one of Epstein’s victims, whose memoirs were published posthumously last month.

The king went further, stripping Mountbatten-Windsor of the title of prince he had held since birth, to punish him for serious errors of judgement.

Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied Giuffre’s claims.