Why Princess Catherine Is Still Called Kate Middleton in Media

Kate Middleton—or Catherine, Princess of Wales, as she is officially known—is still routinely referred to using the name she held before she married by news organizations, sparking irritation from some fans.

The future queen stopped using the surname "Middleton" as far back as 2011 when she became the Duchess of Cambridge.

However, news organizations—including Newsweek—have continued referring to her as Kate Middleton, even after she took on Princess Diana's former title, Princess of Wales, in September 2022.

Prince William and Prince Harry's mother was not referred to as Diana Spencer in the same way, though she did get a nickname in the British media, who used the abbreviation "Princess Di."

The reason for the difference is simple, Diana was alive before the advent of the internet age and the pressures of search engine optimization, hence it was easier to drop her maiden name when she married in 1981.

In 2023, Google Trends data shows that people still overwhelmingly search for "Kate Middleton" rather than "Princess Catherine."

In the last 12 months, U.S. searches for "Princess Catherine" at their highest point only amounted to seven percent of the peak volume of searches for "Kate Middleton," both back in September 2022 when she was first given the title.

Britain is barely any different, with the same figure standing at just nine percent, though "Princess Kate" did slightly better, at 20 percent in Britain and 22 percent in America.

Needless to say, news organizations would risk damaging the capacity of their readers to access their stories by switching house style.

No doubt, if all news organizations made the leap to "Princess Catherine" at the same time then readers would eventually catch up.

However, news organizations do not generally act as a collective in this way, meaning fans of the princess who hope to see a shift to Princess Catherine may have to keep on waiting.

There remains the question of whether the media should ever have called her Kate when she mostly uses Catherine.

Prince William has called her "Kate" before, including during their 2010 engagement interview: "Well, I was torn between asking Kate's dad first and then the realization that he might actually say 'no' dawned upon me.

"So I thought, if I ask Kate first then he can't really say no. So I did it that way round."

Interestingly, Prince Harry uses "Kate" in his book Spare: "I liked his new girlfriend. She was carefree, sweet, kind. She'd done a gap year in Florence, knew about photography, art. And clothes. She loved clothes. Her name was Kate."

In fact, the book's only references to "Catherine" tell a bizarre story about King Charles III and Queen Camilla fearing another royal family member with a name beginning with "C."

The prince quoted Charles saying: "I can't pay for anyone else. I'm already having to pay for your brother and Catherine."

"I flinched," he added. "Something about his use of the name Catherine. I remembered the time he and Camilla wanted Kate to change the spelling of her name, because there were already two royal cyphers with a C and a crown above: Charles and Camilla.

"It would be too confusing to have another. Make it Katherine with a K, they suggested."

Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page.

Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@newsweek.com. We'd love to hear from you.