AN WILSON: Meghan needs all the titles, coats of arms and bullshit she can get. But by changing their last names, this pair of egomaniacs have cut themselves off from their family

Harry and Meghan renamed their website Sussex.com and while they were working on it, they changed their children's surname to Mountbatten-Windsor. From now on, Prince Archie, four, and Princess Lillibet, two, will simply be the Sussexes.

We don't know for sure if Harry and his wife also changed their surnames, but all indications point to this. A source quoted in The Times said: 'The reality behind the new site is very simple: it is a hub for the work the Sussexes do and it reflects the fact that the family has had the same surname for the first time since the King's coronation . '

What a moment to choose this name change. At a time when Harry's father is undergoing treatment for cancer and his sister-in-law Kate is far from healthy, the Californian couple seems to have decided to send a message loud and clear: we do not belong to the same family as Karel and Willem.

The decision is likely to harm the king for other reasons as well. By dropping the Mountbatten-Windsor name, the Sussexes are effectively dropping Lord Mountbatten, Charles's mentor, the man he so revered in his youth and who was murdered by an IRA bomb.

Prince Philip would also certainly have been sad about the decision. Lord Mountbatten was also his martinet uncle Louis.

Meghan Markle wouldn't be called Meghan Sussex if she hadn't come to Britain and chosen to get married in a flashy ceremony in Windsor. Pictured yesterday in Canada

There's no doubt that royals worry more about last names than the rest of us. This is because they don't have it like we do. They have dynasties.

Philip's family name, which reflected the several great dynasties from which he emerged, was Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glucksburg. Since he married Princess Elizabeth just a few years after World War II, it's not surprising that the family decided to ditch this quadruple name, which highlighted its ties to the German-speaking states bordering Denmark.

On the marriage certificate he was simply referred to as Lieutenant P. Mountbatten. His first child was Charles Windsor and took the mother's 'surname'.

The name 'Windsor' was itself chosen by the royal family during the First World War, to discourage people from remembering that Queen Victoria's husband had been German and the family name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

Prince Philip, when he married into the family, did his best to get the Queen to change their name to Mountbatten-Windsor. But Mountbatten – itself an English euphemism for his original surname Battenberg – was still considered too German so soon after the war.

When he discovered that the Queen had accepted official advice to call them simply Windsor, without the 'Mountbatten', this led to his only major public disagreement with her. And until the famous explosion when Philip, who at the time felt like he was being demoted to simply being the stallion that replenished the royal supply, exclaimed, “I'm just a damned AMOEBA!”

Over the years Mountbatten-Windsor came back into use. Charles liked to call his family Mountbatten-Windsor, even though the British establishment raised eyebrows. Anne and Andrew used Mountbatten-Windsor in their marriage register.

The fact is that it was Philip's name, and its use by Charles' children is a sign that they accept everything that the late Duke of Edinburgh did for the late Queen and for the monarchy. It is also a sign of loyalty to our current king.

By rejecting the name and renaming themselves the Sussexes, this pair of self-advertising egomaniacs have cut themselves off from the King and Prince of Wales. Or, anyway, shut themselves down for as long as it suits them.

But as is often the case, they want to have their cake and eat it too. If they had renamed themselves Spencer (Harry's mother's name) or Markle, we might have some grudging respect for them. If they had adopted the name Ragland – the surname of Doria, Meghan's mother – it would have been a truly feminist gesture.

But no. They have chosen a name that reflects the fact that Harry is a royal duke. Meghan Markle wouldn't be called Meghan Sussex if she hadn't come to Britain and chosen to get married in a flashy ceremony in Windsor. She is only too happy with all the royal trappings.

Some experts on protocol, both in Britain and America, have questioned whether she should have authorized the use of her own weapon at the site. But it's a nice selling point in America, where they are in awe of such things. And after parting ways with Spotify when its stock price fell catastrophically, Meghan signed on with Lemonada Media. She needs all the titles, coats of arms and tricks she can get.

How much classier it would have been if she had stayed true to her so-called feminist and republican credentials and simply announced that in the future she would like us to forget she was a Duchess, and be known as a former C- list of TV actress Meghan. Markle.