....to think the use "harold" is performative nonsense

[ohffsgiveitarest]

calling people by the wrong name is generally considered offensive. Surely it is ridiculous here as well?

No one is talking about Willy, Katie, Cams etc and quite right too.

Completely agree. The people on here who do it (and also say Catherine instead of Kate) seem to think they are somehow part of their gang, just because they use those names. Utter idiots.

It’s one of his nicknames

I saw that here in Trending and thought I’d lost the plot. Kept thinking to myself “Surely it’s Henry?? I swear it was Henry. Surely I didn’t spend the first 25 years of my life in England and not know that his name was Harold?”

Bloody hell. 😂

It's one of those " mumsnet in jokes " that people think.are so.hilarious,like
Benefits and wide screen tv and goats etc.

Surely the strange thing was Harry using his and William's nicknames for each other throughout the book?
That was deliberate. Both to create a faux sense of sharing the intimacy of the relationship with the reader but mostly to demean his brother.

It was interesting that in interviews he doesn't refer to his brother as Willy.

Harry himself is using the name " Willy " to refer to his brother in his book. He also states that William refers to him as "Harold". I think that is why people are using those names. They are just quoting Harry himself.

Yeah I think using other people’s in jokes and nicknames is really cringy. It’s what his brother called him I believe - we’re not his brother so it’s not for us to use.

His babe is Henry as there was lots of confusion at the 2012 olympics when he was introduced as Prince Henry. I think ‘Harold’ is a family
nickname.

Do mean William using it is performative? Or people on MN?

I can’t upset about the private nicknames the two brothers use. None of my business.

If people are posting here about “Harold” as if they knew him that is worryingly over-invested.

Tongue in cheek surely.

Those who refer to JK Rowling as 'Joanne' belong in the same category.

and the hilarious naice …

I just keep thinking of steptoe every time I hear it

Some people are high level obsessed with them. When people get really obsessed with a celebrity they can sometimes feel like they know them rather than just buy/consume the art/media/product the celebrity produces. People do it with loads of celebrities - it’s why you’ll sometimes see people on say Instagram calling Timothee Chalamet ‘Timmy’ or referring to the Kardashian children by shortened versions of their name, calling them ‘little Chi’ as if it’s their niece or goddaughter rather than the daughter of a random billionaire woman who couldn’t care less about you as long as you’re slavishly consuming her media output.

Overinvestment, and the exact same thing that you see with people getting so wrapped up in comparing ‘Catherine and little George and gorgeous little Charlotte and cheeky chappy Louis’ to Meghan Markle and her kids. Like I don’t think about my own sister in law and her kids as much as some people think about those two. And some people don’t seem to comprehend that at the end of the day they’re just historical Kardashians in posh dresses and suits instead of Yeezy outfits. You don’t know them, they couldn’t care less about you, and all you see of them is a carefully manufactured media picture.

This whole circus seems to have brought the bat shit out in half the planet.

I do think though that he's used Willy to demean and humiliate William. Lord, let it end soon 🙏

@Justcallmebebes
Unfortunately it won’t stop. With the coronation looming it will be going into overdrive about H&Ms attendance, or not. About Harry’s mental health. About his every utterance. About what the RF might or might not think, say, do about H. The bright light is truly on him. But I’m assuming that’s what he wants.

People are only using it because some of the first excerpts released showed Harry using it himself - and also because it's historically funny (and presumably why William started using it as a nickname for his brother - as in 1066 William the Conqueror vs Harold II)

It's not just Mumsnet - it's all over Twitter, Reddit, Facebook etc too.

Harry chose to stay it it out there, it's his family nickname as William's is Willy according to Harry. Harry could have kept it to himself but.....:

Does anyone else not believe that William’s family really refer to him as Willy? Just doesn’t seem very likely.