It appears that the future king of the British royal family, Prince William, also tried to keep a low profile – by changing his name at university.
The Duke of Cambridge, William, studied at the University of St Andrews with Kate.
However, when Prince William went off to St Andrew’s, the prying media agreed to give him a bit of a break, saying the teen should be allowed to carry on with his studies without being papped every time he was out and about. To be fair, it’s hard enough having your campus mates know what you did at the uni bar the night before, let alone the whole world.
In a quest to keep himself out of the limelight, William gave himself a brand new moniker…The future King was officially enrolled at the University of St Andrews as ‘William Wales’, but his nickname among friends was ‘Steve‘.
Also read: Watch this adorable throwback video of William and Catherine’s graduation ceremony.
Unsurprisingly, William hoped his alter ego would help him fly under the radar at university, and there’s a good chance his future wife Kate referred to him as ‘Steve’ when talking about him in public. The pair became friends after sharing a flat together at university; William had also originally signed up to do Art History, like Kate, but dropped out of the course. Under Kate’s guidance, he changed his main subject to Geography, instead of leaving his studies completely.
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By the time of their graduation, William and Kate were happily in love and dating. The Queen, Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall all attended the graduation ceremony in June 2005, with William saying:
“Today is a very special day for me and I am delighted that I can share it with my family, and in particular with my grandmother, who has made such an effort to come, having been under the weather. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at St Andrew’s and I shall be very sad to leave.”
In a similar manner, William/Steve’s son Prince George has the official title His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, with his actual full name being George Alexander Louis, however, since starting at school the little cutie is rocking about using the name George Cambridge.
Also read: Prince William has put his motorbike days behind him for his children.
His surname follows the tradition of kings and princes historically taking their surnames from their father’s titles. Prince William and Prince Harry used the surname Wales while they attended school, and university in Will’s case.
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