Meghan Markle Issues Strong Advice To Women About Choosing Baby Names

Yahoo

28-05-2025

On the season finale of her podcast, Meghan Markle discussed baby naming, entrepreneurship, and motherhood with Spanx founder Sara Blakely.
The Duchess of Sussex shared strong advice, emphasizing the importance of keeping baby names private, while citing her own experience naming Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Meghan Markle also recalled the physical toll of pregnancy during royal duties, including wearing stilettos despite gaining 65 pounds.
Meghan had a heartfelt discussion with Spanx founder Blakely on the final episode of her podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, about navigating the roles of motherhood and entrepreneurship.
Reflecting on the early stages of launching a venture, Meghan compared it to conducting a "SurveyMonkey," with everyone chiming in on decisions like the company's name. She then drew a parallel to choosing baby names, offering firm advice to expectant parents.
Meghan said, "It's no different, and I will say this to every woman in the world or every person in the world who's going to have a child, if you have an idea about what you are going to name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart, until that baby is born and it's named."
"Don't ask anyone's opinion," the Duchess of Sussex added.
Meghan, who shares two children with Prince Harry, six-year-old Archie and three-year-old Lilibet, emphasized that naming a baby is a deeply personal matter.
In "Finding Freedom," the biography of Meghan and Prince Harry by Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, the authors revealed that when it came to choosing a name for their firstborn, the royal couple was drawn to "something traditional, a name that was powerful even without a title in front of it."
"Archie, meaning strength and bravery, fit the bill," they explained. A friend of the couple revealed that the Duke and Duchess of Sussex reportedly "thought about Archibald for all of one second. He was always going to be little Archie."
Breaking from royal tradition, Archie has just one middle name: Harrison, a subtle nod to his father, meaning "son of Harry" or "son of Henry."
Their daughter, Lilibet, also has a name with deep family significance. Her middle name, Diana, honors Harry's late mother, Princess Diana.
Reports have suggested that Queen Elizabeth II was deeply unsettled by Harry and Meghan's decision to name their daughter Lilibet, a name with deeply personal roots.
The moniker originated in the Queen's childhood and was affectionately coined when young Elizabeth struggled to pronounce her own name. It was allegedly used only by her closest family members: her parents, her sister Princess Margaret, and later, Prince Philip.
While the Sussexes claimed they wouldn't have used the name without the Queen's blessing, conflicting accounts emerged. The BBC cited palace insiders who said the monarch was not formally consulted.
Other sources noted that while Harry and Meghan did inform her, the late Queen felt obligated to go along with it.
According to one royal aide, the Queen was "as angry as I'd ever seen her" after the couple publicly implied she had fully endorsed the tribute.
During the conversation, Meghan also opened up about the physical demands she faced during her pregnancies, especially while fulfilling her royal responsibilities.
While recalling her time being heavily pregnant with her children, Archie and Lilibet, the Duchess noted that she gained around 65 pounds with each pregnancy, yet still adhered to the demanding dress codes of royal life, including wearing high heels.
She laughed as she recalled a moment from 2019 when a friend recently reminded her of a photo showing her heavily pregnant.
"A friend just said to me the other day, they were like, 'I just saw this picture I'd forgotten about when you were so pregnant with Archie," she recalled.
Despite the physical strain, Meghan continued to show up for public appearances in her signature pointed heels.
"I always wear my five-inch, pointy-toed stilettos," she admitted, noting that her friend was surprised by the image of her pregnant in heels. "'You have the most enormous bump and your tiny little ankles are bracing themselves in these high heels,' but all my weight was in the front."
Meghan continued, "So you're just going, 'how on Earth am I not just tipping,' you know, face-planting? I was clinging very closely to my husband, like, 'Please don't let me fall.'"
The Tuesday episode marked the conclusion of the debut season of Meghan's podcast, "Confessions of a Female Founder," which launched on April 8 following its official announcement in March.
Over the course of the season, Meghan sat down with a series of inspiring women entrepreneurs, many of whom she shares personal ties with.
Guests included Bumble's Whitney Wolfe Herd, Girls Who Code and Moms First founder Reshma Saujani, Kadi Lee of Highbrow Hippie, Jamie Kern Lima of IT Cosmetics, Hannah Mendoza of Clevr Blends, Heather Hasson of FIGS, and Kitsch's Cassandra Morales Thurswell.