Kate Middleton

[MyDadWasAnArse]

I've seen so many social media comments on posts saying "Kate Middleton isn't her name, show some respect." - it probably isn't her name as I guess she's not chosen to keep her maiden name. I'm sure nobody is being disrespectful. To be fair she's no more or less deserving of respect than you or me, is she?

But neither is the Princess of Wales her name. It's her job title. I read this about Andrew which seems to explain it.

It's just an easy/lazy way for the media to refer to her. Same as Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Wallis Simpson.

I never see the fuss. It's 2025 and calling a woman by her birth name ( i refuse to say Maiden Name. The connotations!!!) Shouldn't be a big deal or offensive

But neither is the Princess of Wales her name
Quite. I've asked a couple of the "it's so rude to use her maiden name" posters what her name is and nobody seems to know. I don't think she officially took a new surname on marriage, only a title. So Middleton is still her name.

Might be Windsor but if someone said Catherine Windsor would they know who you meant? The kids have been both Cambridge and Wales I think but I don't think she was ever Kate Cambridge.

I don't know why anyone is bothered by her being called by her actual name.

The press use Kate Middleton because of the algorithms in search engines. It creates more hits to use her maiden surname than her married surname (Mountbatten-Windsor) . They won't use titles because they change over time and again don't get enough hits. It's all about clickbait revenue.

I've always thought it was the Kate/Catherine not the Middleton bit that was iffy.

She choses to introduce herself as Catherine in her professional role. People should respect that.

I am a Victoria, Vicky to my family. But professionally I go by Victoria, those who call me Vicky in a professional capacity are nearly always doing so in an offensive way. They are predominantly misogynistic males trying to infantilize me in order to make themselves look better, some competitive mean women do the same. Without doubt using my childhood nickname is used deliberately as a tactic to undermine my professional worth.

In Catherine's case I suspect it is used deliberately by anti monarchists who think her role is a superficial waste of money, and those who have a specific campaign against her as an individual, preferring other members of the royal family. A mark of disrespect. Words/names have power.

I tend to call Catherine Princess of Wales Kate or Kate Middleton mostly out of habit, it's not to be disrespectful or to put her down. Doubtless if I were to meet her in person or correspond with her I would use the proper forms of address.

However when I'm talking about her with friends on online I use the name I find to be the most recognizable and most certainly hers. So people can easily understand who I am talking about.

Do consider that her title, Princess of Wales, has belonged to multiple women. Lady Diana Spencer, Camilla technically, Mary of Teck, Alexandra of Denmark, Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Augusta of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg, Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Catherine of Aragon, Anne Neville, and Joan of Kent.

I think getting annoyed with people for not using proper titles when the titled person isn't there or being corresponded with is a bit like trans activists getting annoyed over pronouns/dead name when the trans person isn't there.

I’m pro monarchy and I like the Wales family but I write Kate on here because it’s so much quicker.

As PP said news sites use Kate Middleton at least somewhere in their articles for the search algorithms. Same reason they use Meghan’s maiden name a lot.

I interpret this to mean she is due the same respect we all owe each other, which in my book is a lot of respect!

I like her and wish her well but I don’t fuss over her name/title on a discussion forum unless people are trying to be deliberately snarky. I don’t worry about all the ‘She’s not Kate, she’s Catherine’ business - of course the press will use an abbreviation for ease, just as Diana was called ‘Di’. Not very elegant or accurate but best ignored. There are more serious problems to worry about!

They continued to say Diana Spencer or more often than not Lady Di and as another poster said, we always say Ann Boelyn and Jane Seymour - not Tudor.

The Lady Di usage did eventually transition into Princess Di though. Whereas Kate is barely ever referred to as 'Princess Kate/Catherine'.

I think it’s because Catherine Middleton takes longer to type

I know someone who served her once and the name on her credit card read Mrs C Cambridge. This was quite a few years ago before everyone tapped or used Apple Pay and the vendor had to insert your card into the machine.

I have no issue with women being referred to by their maiden names. In Scotland women are born and die with their maiden names in the official records. Throughout their lives women even when married are known this way. It's not an insult - quite the opposite.
I don't entertain the nonsense that comes with the term " maiden name" either.
Every country, society and religion has descriptors that relate to familial links.

I have seen her referred to as Princess Catherine on MN. so wrong.

I knew a couple of British women who married Italians, and they kept their maiden names and added the new surname on the end. e.g. Catherine Middleton Mountbatten-Windsor. It was a while ago so I don't know if the Italians still do that, or not. I always think it's a nice custom and I tend to use it for women I've known in their unmarried years as well as their married ones.

She is owed respect if she is a decent human being and not because she married someone. Surely upgrading a woman's level of respect simply because she is married to a particular man who was born in a particular family regardless of what they do as human being (as in the values they live by) should have been left in the 14th Century? And that respect has nothing to do with whether we call her princess catherine or kate middleton. BTW, I have no idea if she is but she is inoffensive and from the curated image we have so far she is ok