Windsor Names: Alexandra

The death of the Queen's first cousin brought to mind, for me, the importance of middle names in linking a family. Early in January 2021, Elizabeth II's cousin, Lady Mary Colman, died. Lady Mary's middle name was Cecilia, the name of the grandmother she shared with the Queen. Elizabeth II was given her other grandmother's name as a middle name, Mary. And ahead of that came the name of the great grandmother she would never know, Alexandra. And that got me thinking about how well used some names are in the House of Windsor. So let's start with A for Alexandra.

If we start at the very top then it is part of the Queen's name. Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, a name chosen for family reasons rather than for a future monarch but then no one really expected this particular royal to rule when she was born. The House of Windsor was just nine years old when baby Elizabeth made her debut and her arrival marked a bit of a sea change in royal naming practices. The old adherence to familiars like Victoria went out of the window. Instead, the name of the great queen's dutiful daughter in law, who had lived so long in her shadow, came to the fore. Baby Elizabeth was also named in honour of Alexandra of Denmark who had been Princess of Wales and then Queen to Edward VII. It would mark the start of a subtle trend.

Alexandra of Denmark was great-grandmother to Elizabeth II 

Elizabeth only had one female first cousin on her father's side and they shared a name. The only daughter of George, Duke of Kent was named Alexandra on her birth in December 1936. HRH Princess Alexandra of Kent became perhaps the best known modern Windsor bearer of the name.

Princess Alexandra, who turned 84 in December 2020, still carries out duties on behalf of The Queen

Following it down to the next generation, Alexandra's own daughter would receive it as a middle name. Marina Victoria Alexandra Ogilvy was born in July 1966. The princess' son, James, named his only daughter Flora Alexandra, ensuring a third generation reach in this part of the family on her arrival in 1994.

Flora Alexandra Ogilvy at her marriage to Timothy Vesterberg

By then, several close Windsor relations had kept the tradition going by using Alexandra for their own children. Princess Alexandra's younger brother, Prince Michael of Kent, named his daughter Gabriella Marina Alexandra Ophelia on her birth in 1981. In 1992, it was also used by George, Earl of St. Andrews when naming his elder daughter.  That baby, the first granddaughter of Alexandra's brother, the Duke of Kent, was named Marina Charlotte Alexandra Katharine Helen Windsor. In the 21st century, the use of this now traditional Windsor name was kept going by the only son of Prince Michael of Kent. Lord Frederick Windsor's second daughter, born in 2016, is Isabella Alexandra May.