to think the statement should be "Mr and Mrs Tindall" and not "Mr and Mrs Mike Tindall"?

[OrlandoWoolf]

"Using Phillips' married name, a Palace spokesperson said in a statement at the time: "Mr and Mrs Mike Tindall are very pleased to announce that Zara Tindall is expecting a baby in the new year."

Talk about losing your identity.

Strictly "Mr and Mrs Mike Tindall" is correct. Dreadful but correct. "Mrs Zara Tindall" would be her name if widowed.

No that would be her name if she was divorced.

Who care anyway?

It's short for "Mistress of Mike Tindall" isn't it? It doesn't mean her name is Mike

I can't see myself getting het up about this after I'm married.

Not because I have "so many more important things to care about", just because I don't care about it.

Given I have a standard easy to spell name I'm just delighted when post doesn't come addressed to fucking Holly MySurname. My name isn't Holly.

Zara is not a princess because only grandchildren of the monarch in the male line have princely status. The only way this could have happened would have been for the Queen to issue letters patent stating that Anne's children would have princely status, but this was probably never considered.

At most Zara could have been Lady Zara, but her parents reportedly declined the offer of a peerage for Mark Phillips. She is still in the line of succession though.

Nobody should be AT ALL surprised that the palace uses this form of address.

I have to say - pathetic as it is - the one that really bugs me is people calling the Duchess Formerly Known as Kate Middleton 'Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge'. That's what she would be called if she were divorced! I'd be quite pissed off if I were her!

maybe if they actually earned a wage for a job done not born to be ideal freeloaders then would care a flying fuck.

at least Tindall excelled at rugby.

I don't begrudge then having mummies money but it makes my want to spit when they paid for doing jack shit and people bowing and scraping and creeping around them.

good on the self made Middletons.

Ahh I got confused. I knew that Anne had turned down a title for the kids, but thought it was Prince/Princess. I remember the hooha over Princess Anne saying she didn't want her children to be 'Royal'. Must have been Lady/Viscount I was thinking of.

Imagine how Princess Michael of Kent must feel!

God, all these unthinking people on here, parroting, 'it's correct', 'it's correct', 'it's correct'....!

Just because something is traditional and how it's always been done, doesn't mean you can't question it, realise it's outdated and no longer appropriate - and, you know, reject it.

I am not at all surprised that the Monarchy still uses this method of address.

I am massively surprised that grown women who post on Mumsnet are quite so unthinking and accepting, however....!

And I'm not saying that you personally have to reject this method of address; rather, simply, that you cannot be in the least bit surprised that some women might want to.

It's etiquette. I imagine that the Royal Family are very hot on etiquette. Really, who cares.

LOL.....

No one ever starts this thread (as surprised me there are quite this many...) saying I've started a petition, or join me in bombarding x with this.

I guess I just get bored of like minded women agreeing its dreadful but ignoring it usually a bit silly. If you choose to ignore it but call yourself something/prefer it written differently why assume it's actually changed?

If cross write to debretts, ask them why it hasn't. Must be a reason. Apathy? As in no one asks them to review it...?

They are still referring to her as Zara Phillips on the news this lunchtime, which would annoy me more in her position as it is not her name anymore.

Yes it is.

She is Zara Phillips, she is also Mrs Mike Tindall.

God, all these unthinking people on here, parroting, 'it's correct', 'it's correct', 'it's correct'

Knowing the correct way to address someone does not make me unthinking or accepting. At this moment in time that is the correct method of address.

The whole male line bollocks.

There is a big challenge now to the male line for hereditary peers in the aristocracy, and rightly so. If the throne has dropped the requirement that it be a boy above older siblings, the aristocracy must do the same. Especially as hereditary peers actually have power over us in the house of lords.

Obviously hereditary peers should be abolished wholesale - partly because the discrimination against women must surely be against the law?

I sort of like hereditary peers sitting in the Lords precisely because they don't have to suck up to voters or nominators. Life seats in the Lords is a good thing because they aren't chasing reelection and can take a long view, and the occasion of their appointment isn't politically motivated.

I think the Lords needs reform, don't get me wrong, but there's something about some of its members being there by accident of birth that appeals to me.

Why are Beatrice and Eugenie princesses if grandchildren can only be prince/princesses through the male line? Is it because Andrew is a royal duke?

Knowing the correct way to address someone does not make me unthinking or accepting. At this moment in time that is the correct method of address.

Well, yes, it does. You're totally accepting it based on the fact that at this point in time, it's the "correct" method of address.

He is Prince Andrew, Duke of York.

I hate, really, truly hate, being referred to in this manner.

120 years ago it was considered women didn't have the mentally capacity to vote, we didn't allow that to continue just because it was the 'proper' way did we?

Why should a woman accept being refereed to like this!?

Mrs Mike Tindall is really no different to Mrs Tindall, as they both mean "mistress of that man with surname Tindall".

We do have the choice to be called Ms Ourname, don't we?

Misread. Thought it meant that the monarch grandparent had to be male.

bootycall

Zara is an Olympic medal winning, top athlete in her own right.

She may have had lots of money to help her get there, but no riches in the world can buy that talent.

Freeloader is insulting.

If this is the "correct form of address", how could it ever change? There's no laws about it, it's just a custom. Customs aren't obligatory nor can they really be called "correct".

I hope I'm not the only woman with her joint account named as Mrs B & Mr X Slowly. If I set something up, my name goes first, irrespective of the custom to put Mr before Mrs.

IS IT REALLY THAT IMPORTANT?