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.
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.
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.
This section updates the page four years later! Has it really been 4 yours since I first wrote the page?
I am not sure if this information is interesting to anybody but the news media have chewed over this quite a lot so I felt it necessary to update the page.
I think that it is worth making the point that Meghan Markle had what appeared to have been a close relationship with Archie, the family cat, when she was living with her mother Ms Doria Ragland. It would seem reasonable to presume that her mother likes domestic cats. And her mother looks like a great lady by the way. Every time I have seen her on television she has behaved with dignity and decorum.
And Archie the cat was an important part of Meghan’s home when she was growing up. Doria Ragland rescued Archie so he was a rescue cat which is another nice feature of the story. And it shows that Doria has a good heart at least on that measure.
Meghan loved to play with him and she would always talk about him to friends we are told by the Daily Mail.
Got fat?
News media say that Archie became fat because Meghan fed him grapes! Well, Meghan “is believed to have told friends the cat ended becoming fat after he was constantly fed grapes”. That sounds completely ridiculous to me and I’m sure it is all fiction. Cats don’t eat grapes and if one cat ate a part of a grape, they wouldn’t eat lots of them to the point where they became obese.
In fact, The Cut website reached out to veterinarians and asked them whether it was wise to feed cats with frozen grapes. Yes, apparently, she fed frozen grapes to Archiw which makes this aspect of the story even more ridiculous. One veterinarian said that it was unlikely to be toxic. Not a very convincing answer. Maybe that’s made up to.
Hello! Magazine’s story on this is that they named their son Archie after some other kid who was named Archie! What that is saying is that they just liked the name which sounds plausible.
Incidentally, as a baby, Archie was very calm and Harry implied that he inherited that aspect of his character from him and not from his mother!
Another website Town & Country rather belatedly and recently on May 21, 2023 asked whether Meghan Markle even had a cat when growing up. That question seems been answered years ago in the positive.
However, we know that Meghan loves dogs and it seems pretty clear to me that she loves dogs more than cats (or is this Harry’s influence?) but the general gist that I have is that she likes animals which is a good sign. They have three dogs, a black Labrador and two rescue beagles.
Harry says that people need dogs to keep them calm! They say that the Duchess of Sussex a.k.a. Meghan Markle confirmed in a speech at the Ms Foundation Gala in New York City that she did have a cat as a child.
This is the quote:
It’s funny because as a young girl, I would come home and I’d settle in after a day of school. I’d pull up my TV tray with dinner and I would turn on my evening ritual of jeopardy and I would glance at the coffee table where I would see an array of things. It could be the cat’s collar, my homework, some mail that had just been brought in and some magazines.
The “cat’s collar” gives the game away. Who has a cat collar without a cat? QED, but then we know that Meghan Markle’s mother had a cat when she was a child so I’m not sure that this article really is of any use.
That’s enough about Meghan’s cat and Archie.
Postscript: Doria Ragland apparently loves dogs and she passed that characteristic down to her daughter but she also likes to keep fit through physical activity and yoga. She likes to go hiking with her dogs and it would seem to me that she is an outdoor type person who likes to keep in shape. She might prefer dogs over cats because it allows her to go out with them. Just a guess.
