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The Royal Family's unusual nicknames uncovered
Like all of us, the British Royal family has nicknames for each other.
While many are simply diminutive – such as Lottie for Princess Charlotte or H for Prince Harry – or common terms of endearment such as babe or darling, there are unusual ones you wouldn't guess.
Read on to discover who answers to Gary and why one royal is known as Tips.
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The Queen
While it is known Queen Elizabeth II's childhood nickname is Lilibet, others may come as a surprise.
One was revealed in the 2006 film, The Queen, when Philip asks his wife to "move over, Cabbage".
"I inquired in royal circles and was told on very good authority that that is what the Duke sometimes calls the Queen," Peter Morgan, screenwriter for the film, told The Times.
Robert Lacey, the monarch’s biographer, confirmed the nickname: "Yes, I’ve heard that is how he will sometimes refer to her."
It's not quite as odd as it seems.
It comes from the French phrase "mon petit chou", which literally means "my little cabbage", however the French use it to mean "my darling".
Another unusual nickname for Her Majesty is Gary.
After William fell over at Buckingham Palace as a small child, he was bawling: "Gary, Gary".
A guest who went to help asked who Gary was, assuming it must be a member of the royal household.
"I’m Gary," explained the Queen, as she scooped him up.
"He hasn’t learned to say Granny yet."
Similarly, William's children call the queen Gan Gan after Prince George found Great Gran too difficult as a small child.
Prince Charles and Camilla
The Prince was enamoured by Camilla from a young age and even before he married Diana, he and Camilla had affectionate nicknames for one another.
They called each other Fred and Gladys after characters in The Goon Show.
Sadly this affection didn't seem to wane after he married Diana, as the Princess discovered after uncovering a gift meant for Camilla.
"I walked into this man’s office one day and I said, ‘Ooh, what’s in that parcel?’ And he said ‘Oh, you shouldn’t look at that'," the Princess told royal biographer Andrew Morton.
"So I opened it and there was a gold chain bracelet with a blue enamel disc. It’s got ‘G and F’ entwined in it, ‘Gladys’ and ‘Fred’—they were their nicknames."
Charles also revealed that he calls Camilla "Mehbooba", which means "my beloved" in Urdu.
“I cannot quite believe it is almost two years to the day that both my mehbooba and myself were able to be with all of you to celebrate the work of the British Asian Trust," Charles said at the British Museum in London earlier this year.
Prince William
We know friends and family call him Wills, but he has a very sweet nickname from his childhood.
His mother, Diana, The Princess of Wales, used to affectionately call him "Wombat".
"It began when I was two ... when we went to Australia with our parents, and the wombat, you know, that’s the local animal, so I just basically got called that, not because I look like a wombat, or maybe I do," Prince William revealed in a 2007 interview with NBC.
It seems the name has stuck.
"I can’t get rid of it now," he said.
It's believed even his children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, use it sometimes.
Infant William was also known by his father Prince Charles as ‘whirlwind Will’, due to his cheeky habit of flushing shoes down the royal loo, pushing the palace panic buttons and threatening to behead his friends or lock them up in the Tower of London.
Prince George
Since his birth, the family had an adorable nickname for George: "Tips".
Apparently, it is because his initials - PG for Prince George - reminded them of the British tea brand PG Tips.
This has also been the theme of his nickname at school.
"George is really happy at school, [and] his nickname is PG," a fellow parent at Thomas’s Battersea told Vanity Fair.
Princess Charlotte
Prince William revealed his very sweet nickname for his daughter, Princess Charlotte, when the two were filmed playing in Kate Middleton's Chelsea Flower Show garden in 2019.
The royal dad was overheard calling Charlotte "Mignonette" which means delicate' or "sweetie" in French.
Meghan Markle
While the Duchess of Sussex may be affectionately called Meg by her husband Harry, it is Prince Charles' nickname for her that is a little more unusual.
He nicknamed his younger son's wife "Tungsten".
"As royal correspondent Russell Myers revealed on Lorraine in 2019, Charles nicknamed her after the metal as 'she is tough and unbending'," The List narrator Christine-Marie Liwag Dixon explained to The Express.
"Tungsten is the strongest naturally occurring metal on the planet.
"That makes this a pretty neat compliment, all things considered."
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