Like Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie will raise her son without a royal title

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Like Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie will raise her son without a royal title
Princess Eugenie, Jack Brooksbank, and their son, August, in February 2021; Meghan Markle and Prince Harry with their first child, Archie, in May 2019.Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank/PA Wire/Handout via REUTERS; Getty/Pool
  • Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank named their son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank.
  • Based on their announcement, August won't take on a royal title.
  • Titles can only be passed down from male heirs, and Brooksbank isn't a royal.
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Princess Eugenie of York and Jack Brooksbank named their son August Philip Hawke Brooksbank, they announced on Saturday.

August, who's Eugenie and Brooksbank's first baby together, was born on February 9.

August is the first grandchild of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York. He's also the Queen and Prince Philip's ninth great-grandchild.

Princess Eugenie on Saturday explained the significance of August's name, writing in an Instagram story: "On his grandfather's birthday weekend, thinking of my grandfather, we are introducing our little boy. He is named after his great-grandfather and both of his great x5 grandfathers."

Like Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie will raise her son without a royal title
A photo Princess Eugenie shared on Saturday.Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank/PA Wire/Handout via REUTERS

Eugenie mentioned that August's first middle name, Philip, is a nod to her grandfather, Prince Philip.

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The name August nods to Eugenie's fourth great-grandfather, Albert, Prince Consort, who was the husband of Queen Victoria. Albert's full name was Prince Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel.

August's second middle name, Hawke, honors Jack Brooksbank's relative, Reverend Edward Hawke Brooksbank, who was born in the late 1700s, according to The Telegraph.

Like Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's son, Archie, Eugenie and Brooksbank's son won't take on a royal title

Based on Eugenie and Brooksbank's announcement of their new baby's name, August doesn't seem to have a royal title.

August did not inherit a royal title at birth like Eugenie and her sister, Princess Beatrice, according to the BBC.

This is because of a decree from King George V in 1917, which limited the title of "prince" or "princess" to "the grandchildren of the sons of any such Sovereign in the direct male line (save only the eldest living son of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales)."

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Even though Eugenie and Beatrice aren't working members of the royal family, they inherited royal titles from their father.

Like Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie will raise her son without a royal title
Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie on December 25, 2015.Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Additionally, William and Kate Middleton's oldest son, Prince George, was given the "prince" title at birth because of the rule stated above.

As Insider's Mikhaila Friel previously reported, the Queen in 2012 made an exception that gave Prince William and Kate Middleton's other two kids the option to have the "prince" or "princess" titles.

While it's possible that the Queen could grant August a royal title, reports from fall 2020 - around the time that Eugenie announced her pregnancy - suggested that Eugenie likely didn't want that for her son.

Like Meghan Markle, Princess Eugenie will raise her son without a royal title
Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank got married in October 2018. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle pictured in 2020.Karwai Tang/WireImage; Pool/Max Mumby/Getty Images

"Even if the Queen offered them a title as a gift, it's not Eugenie or Jack's desire for their child to have a title," a family friend, who chose to remain anonymous, told Vanity Fair in September 2020.

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In a similar vein, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry opted not to give their first child, Archie, a royal title when he was born in May 2019. Archie's full name is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor - his last name being the official surname of the royal family. However, usually, only royal family members without HRH titles take on the Mountbatten-Windsor last name.

Eugenie and Brooksbank seemed to follow in the footsteps of Markle and Harry in some other ways, too.

For example, Eugenie used Instagram to share the first glimpse of their baby with the world, which was similar to what the Duke and Duchess of Sussex did when announcing Archie's gender on social media.

Eugenie and Brooksbank also waited several hours to release the news of August's birth to the press. A similar scenario happened when Markle gave birth to Archie in the morning of May 6, 2019. The couple's spokespeople didn't release the news until later that afternoon.

Representatives for Buckingham Palace did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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