The Duke and Duchess of Sussex refused a title for Prince Archie as they were worried their son might be bullied or attract unfortunate nicknames. The couple rejected the title Earl of Dumbarton and declined to use the title of Scottish nobility, claims a source.

They told the Telegraph: "They didn’t like the idea of Archie being called the Earl of Dumbarton because it began with the word 'dumb' [and] they were worried about how that might look." Another source added: "It wasn’t just Meghan who pointed out the potential pitfalls, it also bothered Harry."

According to the Collins dictionary, one of the descriptions of the adjective 'dumb' means "If you call a person dumb, you mean that they are stupid or foolish."

The Earl of Dumbarton title was first created in the Peerage of Scotland in March 1675 for Lord George Douglas, son of the Marquess of Douglas and younger brother of the Earl of Selkirk, for services fighting in the Franco-Dutch War.

Lord Dumbarton was also created Lord Douglas of Ettrick. He was married to Anne Douglas, the first Countess of Dumbarton, who was the sister of Catherine Fitzroy, Duchess of Northumberland. Following the death of their only son, the unmarried second Earl, both titles became extinct in January 1749.

The title was recreated in the UK Peerage by the late Queen as one of the two subsidiary titles for her grandson when he married Meghan in May 2018.

When Prince Harry and Meghan stepped down as working royals there was an agreement to stop using HRH, which stands for Her/His Royal Highness, but they still hold the titles, 'The Duke and Duchess of Sussex'.

Prince Harry and Meghan lost the use of the titles when they stopped being working royals in 2020 and left the UK, initially to move to Canada and then to the US.

The agreement has not removed the title, but restricted how it is used. This comes as Meghan Markle's private use of the HRH title is under public debate, as it was used when gifting an American businesswoman items.

Meghan's card and an HRH title was shown in a video of a podcast hosted by Jamie Kern Lima, who said that when she had been "super-stressed" that Meghan had cheered her up by dropping round some ice cream and "home made strawberry sauce".