You probably know by now that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, named their son ‘Archie’, which is short for Archibald but this version is not meant to be a shortened version of Archibald. His middle name is “Harrison”. This means “the son of Harry” – a nice touch. Update: Meghan Markle gave her son Archie the middle name Harrison ‘as a tribute to her favourite Beatle’, friends have claimed – Headline from The Sun newspaper.

Cat Archie and Meghan are approached by another of her moggies. I believe that she is stroking Archie. Photo: Splash News.

The choice of “Archie” is interesting because it involves a cat. Before Meghan Markle became world famous after marrying Prince Harry she had a cat in America whose name was Archie and she named her cat after a well-known comic called, you guessed it, Archie. It is presumed, therefore, that naming her son after her pet cat who died it is believed while she was at college, is through nostalgia.

Archie the comic

The Sun newspaper says that Meghan was said to have been obsessed with the antics of ginger-haired teen Archie Andrews. We are told that she collected the comic with her dad, Thomas. We know that Meghan is currently estranged from Thomas although it’s hoped that they will restart their relationship. Perhaps the name Archie is a nod to her desire to become friendly with her father again.

Apparently Archie is the 11th most popular name for a baby in 2019 (ref: Bounty online) and is the 10th most popular name for dogs in the UK according to a company called SEMrush.

The Duchess of Sussex seems to like animals a lot. We are told that the former Hollywood actress was always talking about her cat Archie to friends. He was a random bred cat, not purebred as far as I can tell. The pictures which are rather out of focus indicate to me that the Archie was a tabby cat.