There's a Long-Standing Debate over Princess Kate's Title—a Royal Correspondent Just Cleared It Up

A royal correspondent has finally settled a debate that’s been ongoing for over fifteen years. Every social media post and headline news story referring to the Princess of Wales as “Kate Middleton” is fraught with replies correcting Princess Kate’s official title: is it Kate, Catherine, or something else entirely?

Channel 5’s royal correspondent Simon Vigar told GB News that palace officials have advised member of the press to refer to the Princess of Wales by her formal birth name, Catherine. Vigar explains that "Kate obviously works in a headline, like Di and Meg.” She has become known as Princess Kate—or, occasionally, even as Kate Middleton—but Vigar reports that in recent years “we were getting briefed that it's 'Catherine'.”

The great debate over Kate vs. Catherine has been going on for over fifteen years, since Prince William referred to her as “Kate” in their official engagement interview. Since then, the royal couple’s team and the Princess of Wales herself have tried to correct the narrative and shift the name to “Catherine.” On a 2021 royal engagement, Catherine told a young child, "I'm the Duchess of Cambridge, but lots of people call me Catherine." Most recently, the Princess of Wales told children in Italy that her name is “Caterina,” the italian form of Catherine.

Simon Vigor, who has written the upcoming biography The Four Wives of Windsor: The Inside Story of the Power Behind the Crown, reports that she is "definitely Catherine,” adding that her family have “always” called her Catherine. The princess’s family, including her mother Carole Middleton and brother James Middleton, have referred to her as "Catherine" throughout interviews and stories of their childhood.

So, why can’t she escape her maiden name? An SEO expert explained to Hello that it all comes down to SEO: search engine optimization. "Search behavior is kind of like how people are searching and the underlying intention behind those searches," according to Andrew Coco, senior director of web strategy and SEO at NBCUniversal. Coco explains that "Kate Middleton" sees more searches in search engines over her formal title or her full name, according to Google Trends.