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The Queen Reportedly Asked For This Princess’ Name To Be Changed

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A newborn princess spent nearly two weeks without an official name because Queen Elizabeth II didn’t like the one her parents picked.

When Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Prince Andrew welcomed their first child on August 8, 1988, they had already settled on a name: Annabel. It never made it onto an official announcement. The Queen, exercising the quiet veto power reigning monarchs hold over senior royal names, shot it down — and the palace went silent on what the baby would actually be called.

• Sarah Ferguson and Prince Andrew’s first choice for their newborn daughter, born August 8, 1988, was Princess Annabel.
• The Queen reportedly dismissed Annabel as “too yuppie” for a royal title, leaving the baby unnamed in public records for nearly two weeks.
• The Queen suggested Beatrice instead, honoring Queen Victoria’s youngest daughter, Princess Beatrice (1857–1944); the baby was officially named Beatrice Elizabeth Mary.

An Informal Veto With Real Teeth

Royal naming isn’t governed by written law, but it does run through an unofficial approval process: senior royals present their choice to the sovereign before anything is announced. Andrew and Sarah followed that protocol in 1988, expecting a rubber stamp. Instead, the Queen balked. As the rest of the royal family has learned over the decades, her opinion doesn’t need to be written into the constitution to function as the final word on family matters.

The delay that followed was unusual by royal standards. Births are typically followed within days by a formal name announcement from Buckingham Palace. This one stretched close to two weeks, with the palace effectively holding the paperwork while Andrew, Sarah and the Queen worked out an alternative.

Excessive Yuppie Branding Derailed Annabel

The Queen’s objection to Annabel reportedly came down to tone. “Yuppie” was a loaded word in Britain in 1988 — shorthand for the fast-money, fashion-forward culture of the late Thatcher years — and it was the opposite of the image the monarch wanted attached to a princess.

The Queen reportedly dismissed Annabel as “too yuppie” and unfit for a royal title.

Royal names are meant to carry weight and history, not trend with the decade. That standard is exactly why so much royal wedding and christening tradition still leans on centuries-old precedent — the same instinct that shapes everything from christening gowns to the most expensive royal wedding dresses ever commissioned.

Beatrice: The Queen’s Counteroffer

Rather than simply rejecting Annabel and leaving the couple to guess again, the Queen offered a fix: Beatrice. The name reached back to Queen Victoria’s youngest child, Princess Beatrice, who lived from 1857 to 1944 and served for years as her mother’s personal secretary. It checked every box the Queen wanted — royal pedigree, historical weight, nothing “yuppie” about it.

Andrew and Sarah agreed. The baby was officially announced as Beatrice Elizabeth Mary — Elizabeth for the Queen herself, Mary for Queen Mary, the Queen’s grandmother. What started as a rejected suggestion became a name stacked with tribute to three generations of royal women.

A Pattern, Not a One-Off

The Beatrice episode fits a broader pattern of the Queen quietly steering family decisions that look personal from the outside but run through the same informal channel every time. It’s the same dynamic that’s shaped royal weddings, titles and public roles for decades — personal choices filtered through one woman’s approval before they ever reach the public.

Nearly two weeks of silence over a birth announcement was as loud a signal as the Queen ever sent without saying a word publicly. Princess Beatrice carried that compromise name — and the tribute to her great-great-grandmother’s namesake — through her wedding in 2020 and into her own life as a mother, still going by the name her grandmother picked instead of the one her parents wanted.