Royal surnames and dynastic house names - Windsor, Bourbon, Habsburg, Romanov - the family names European royal houses actually used.
—
How these names are built
Royal families do not use surnames the way everyone else does, and that is the most interesting thing about them. What we call a royal surname is usually a house or dynasty name - Bourbon, Habsburg, Romanov, Bernadotte - a label for the lineage and its political claim rather than a family name inherited the ordinary way. Britain's royal family is the clearest example: the house name Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was dropped in 1917 during the First World War and replaced with Windsor, and the surname Mountbatten-Windsor was only created in 1960 for descendants who need a surname at all. Monarchs are normally known by their house plus a regnal name, which is why the name a European royal is born with and the name they reign under can be two different things.
How the generator works
Rolled from 24 real-name banks — 24 combinations — using your browser's random source. Nothing is sent anywhere: the whole tool runs on your device.
Examples
Roll
Result
single roll
Windsor
single roll
Habsburg
single roll
Bernadotte
Frequently Asked Questions
Do royal families have surnames?
Not in the ordinary sense. A royal house name identifies a dynasty and its claim rather than a family's inherited surname, which is why a monarch can change house name for political reasons and keep the same position.
Why is the British royal surname Windsor?
The house was renamed in 1917, during the First World War, when a German-sounding dynasty name became politically untenable. Windsor was an English name chosen for exactly that reason. The surname Mountbatten-Windsor came later, in 1960, for family members who need an ordinary surname.
Which European house names are these?
The bank holds the real dynastic names of Europe's major royal houses - Windsor in Britain, Bourbon in France and Spain, Habsburg in Austria, Romanov in Russia, Hohenzollern in Prussia and Germany, Bernadotte in Sweden, Orange-Nassau in the Netherlands, Grimaldi in Monaco and Savoy in Italy, among others.