Princess Kate? Princess Anne? Princess Diana?

[BradfordGirl]

Why is it viewed by so many as disrespectful to refer to Kate as Princess Kate, and yet talking about Princess Anne or Princess Diana is seen as normal and acceptable?

It’s almost like the whole system is just made-up bollocks, really.

Not disrespectful. Just incorrect, as is princess Diana. Makes the user sound a bit thick, if you’re a fan you should know their (ridiculous) titles. One of the royalty fro there that sit outside hospitals etc.

She was THE princess of Wales on Marriage. Diana, princess of Wales came upon divorce. I did a module on this at school and it was all such bollocks that it stuck.

You’ve misunderstood, I think.

Some people used to get het up about papers and posters calling her Kate Middleton when she hasn’t been Middleton for years.

Princess Kate/Catherine is incorrect. That’s not her title.

Diana also wasn’t Princess Diana but the papers ran with it anyway.

She was The Princess of Wales whilst she was married to Charles. After they divorced she was Diana, Princess of Wales.

Princess Anne is correct.

Philip was born a Greek prince. He renounced this when he married Elizabeth and she created him a prince of the UK.

And for those who think Princess William sounds silly (I do) we all manage it just fine when talking about Princess Michael of Kent.

Actually he was born Prince of Greece and Denmark.

(Not that it matters but I’m Danish so I don’t like to see it missed out! )

It annoys me when people called her Kate. Her name is Catherine. I think it was sone nasty press person who gave her the nickname Waity Katie.

Apologies

Were you annoyed with William when he called her Kate in their engagement interview?

The reason she's still referred to as Kate Middleton by the media is for SEO. They want people to read their articles and they know they are googling "Kate Middleton" so they write accordingly.

Yes, it’s for google hits. I wonder if they’ve seen a marked switch over to Princess of Wales yet.

If you're a royal duke you're also a Prince, but the Duke title is higher. There are plenty of other dukes who aren't Princes though (the Duke of Norfolk who organised the Queen's funeral, for example).

The Duke of Kent uses that title (Prince Edward, Duke of Kent) because it's the highest one he has, and his younger brother is "just" Prince Michael of Kent. Prince Michael's wife is known as Princess Michael of Kent, because she's a Princess because she's married to him.

Margaret/Anne/Eugenie/Beatrice/Charlotte (technically Louise although she doesn't use it) are all princesses of the blood, so Princess just goes with their name.

Not the point of the thread, but I always think it's bizarre when people write 'Kate' when her name is Catherine with 'C' not a 'K'.

Nicknames often work like that. Kate with a K is an accepted diminutive of Catherine.

Kate has been a nickname for Catherine for years! I didn't see it spelled Cate until Cate Blanchett came on the scene.

@Create10 is correct. I remember the hoo ha when Diana and Charles divorced. She lost her HRH and went from being The Princess of Wales to Diana, Princess of Wales.

Also, Kings rank higher than Queens. So Prince Philip (born a Prince, always had the title) could not be king as he would outrank his wife. The same happened with Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who also was not allowed to be a king. However, the female consorts, e.g., Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, were allowed the Queen title upon their husband becoming King.

Yes, Cate would really be more incorrect.

Funny how written language works isn’t it.

Do people describe it as disrespectful on here? I think some people may say it's not actually correct but disrespectful, really?

Also, Diana never completely threw off the Lady Diana title off either in popular discussion, particularly abroad.

Oh that used to really annoy me!

(But that’s because I like things to be correct/accurate)

She was 'Lady Di' until the day she died! Still, it's not like we didn't know who people were referring to when they called her that.

Cate is an acceptable spelling.

I think Cs and Ks were used interchangeably in historic language. Before the invention of the printing press and the wider populace being literate, people just heard the hard K sound and did not associate it with a particular letter of the alphabet. Hence Katherine/Catherine diminutives include Kate, Kitty, Kat, and the Christopher diminutive includes Kit. French, Latin etc were used far more than the English language in early writing too, and other countries use C and K differently and to different extents. I've seen the various wives of Henry referred to as both Catherine and Katherine in different historical writing.