Your Last Name Might Hide Royal Roots, Here’s How to Tell
Have you ever wondered if your surname carries a hidden link to the British Royal Family? A recent
project by the genealogy platform MyHeritage has sparked new curiosity about who might share distant connections to Europe’s most powerful bloodlines.
The company recently released the MyHeritage royal list, highlighting 35 surnames with ties to royal and aristocratic families across Europe. And some of them, like Stewart, Spencer, Howard, and Russell, are surprisingly common in the United States.
The Royal-Name List You May Recognize
MyHeritage’s compilation of royal last names spans centuries and continents. It includes medieval dynasties such as Plantagenet, Capet, and Valois, alongside noble English families like the Howards, Percys, and Spencers.
The list even stretches into modern monarchies, from the Windsors of Britain to the Habsburgs of Austria and the Romanovs of Russia.
Here are all 35 names:
Astley
Baskerville
Bourbon (de Bourbon)
Bruce
Capell (Capel)
Capet
Cavendish
Courtenay
Darcy (d’Arcy)
de Medici (Medici)
FitzAlan
Glücksburg
Grey
Hanover
Habsburg
Howard
Lancaster
Manners
Neville
Oldenburg
Orange-Nassau
Orléans (d’Orléans, de Orléans)
Percy
Plantagenet
Romanov
Russell
Savoy (Savoia, Savoie)
Seymour
Spencer
Stewart (Stuart)
Talbot
Tudor
Valois (de Valois)
Windsor (Mountbatten-Windsor)
York
How Common Are These Names in America?
Several of these surnames appear regularly in U.S. Census Bureau data. Stewart alone accounts for more than 324,000 listings, with another 36,000 under the Stuart spelling.
Howard shows up over 260,000 times, and Russell appears more than 220,000. Spencer ranks near 140,000.
Others are far rarer. Bruce, York, Lancaster, and Seymour each land between 25,000 and 55,000 listings, while Cavendish, Astley, and Romanov appear fewer than 500 times.
Even Windsor, the reigning family’s name, appears only about 7,600 times across the country.
Name Alone Doesn’t Equal Royal Blood
Having one of these names doesn’t automatically mean you share DNA with kings or queens. Over time, many families adopted similar surnames without any connection to nobility. Spelling changes, marriages, and migrations also blurred those distinctions.
Still, exploring possible links can reveal fascinating tales. Researching royal ancestry is less about proving a claim to the throne and more about uncovering how history, geography, and family intersect.
How to Begin Your Own Royal Genealogy
If you’re curious to see whether your family tree touches royalty, start small. Write down what you know (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents) and verify each link with official records like birth certificates or marriage licenses.
Websites such as MyHeritage, Ancestry, and FamilySearch are valuable tools for anyone interested in royal genealogy. They can help you find digitized archives, connect with distant relatives, and even spot potential ancestral overlaps with historic noble families.
Just remember, by the tenth generation, you’ll have more than a thousand direct ancestors. So, while a link to royalty is possible, it takes careful documentation to confirm.
Why Our Fascination Endures
The idea of being connected to the British Royal Family still sparks imagination. It ties the present to centuries of intrigue, castles, alliances, and power plays that shaped nations.
Even if your family never brushed shoulders with royalty, tracing those roots will connect you to a much larger story.
Still, every surname carries history. And, whether your name once appeared in the MyHeritage royal list or not, the search itself is a reminder that exploring the past can reveal something truly noble, a deeper understanding of the present.
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