Have you ever wondered if you might have royal blood?
For centuries, royals and nobles have been seen as “fancier” than the rest of us, but the truth is, they’re just ordinary people too.
In fact, research shows that with the right family names, you could be distantly related to royalty, whether you know it or not.
We’ve all probably wondered at some point if we have royal blood somewhere in our family tree. Looking specifically at the British royal family, MyHeritage has identified 35 surnames that could suggest a connection to nobility.
But it doesn’t stop there. Family History Daily has rounded up 100 more surnames that could point to royal blood in your veins… or at least a touch of aristocracy.
Their list leans on Charles H. Browning’s 1891 classic, Americans of Royal Descent, which digs through hundreds of historical documents tied to the Royal Family’s lineage.
First, it helps to know the current royal surname, which often flies under the radar: Mountbatten-Windsor. The Windsors have been the family’s house name for centuries, but the “Mountbatten” portion comes from the late Queen Elizabeth’s husband, Prince Philip.
Philip, originally a Prince of Greece and Denmark, gave up those titles when he became a British citizen in 1947 and adopted his mother’s surname, Mountbatten. After Elizabeth ascended the throne in 1952, she decided to double-barrel the royal surname to honor her husband.
Could your surname indicate a royal connection?
Here’s a full list of potentially royal surnames:
Abel
Alden
Appleton
Ayer
Barber
Barclay
Beverly
Binney
Brooke
Brown
Campbell
Carroll
Chauncey
Coleman
Cooper
Davis
Dickinson
Darling
Douglas
Dunbar
Edwards
Ellery
Ellis
Emmett
Evans
Farley
Fleming
Forest
French
Gardiner
George
Gerard
Gerry
Gibson
Graham
Hamilton
Haynes
Herbert
Hill
Howard
Hume
Irving
Jackson
James
Jenkins
Johnson
Kane
Kennedy
Ker
Key
King
Langdon
Lawrence
Lee
Leonard
Livingston
Lloyd
McCall
McDonald
Malcalester
Montgomery
Morris
Morton
Nelson
Nicholson
Nixon
Norris
O’Carroll
Ogle
Opie
Parsons
Patterson
Peabody
Pomeroy
Porter
Pratt
Preston
Quay
Randolph
Read
Reeve
Robinson
Rogers
Sanford
Shaw
Smith
Sowden
Stanley
Taylor
Townsend
Turner
Tyler
Valentine
Varson
Walker
Watts
White
Whiting
Williams
Young
But there’s more. Here’s another list of names might indicate aristocratic or noble connections:
Windsor
Tudor
Stuart
Plantagenet
Capet
Bourbon
Habsburg
Hanover
Valois
Lancaster
York
Bruce
de Valois
de Medici
Savoy
Orange-Nassau
Oldenburg
Glucksburg
Romanov
Baskerville
Darcy
Neville
Percy
Astley
Capell
Howard
Seymour
Grey
FitzAlan
Courtenay
Manners
Russell
Cavendish
Talbot
Spencer
Of course, having one of these names doesn’t automatically make you royalty, but it’s a fascinating starting point if you’re curious about your ancestry.
Remarkably, Queen Elizabeth’s family tree can be traced 1,209 years and 37 generations back with astonishing precision. Æthelstan, born around AD 895, is considered by some historians as the first true king of England.
So, next time you glance at your family tree, take a closer look, you might be more connected to history than you ever imagined. Could you find your name? Share your story in the comments!
