Queen had savage nickname for Kate when she first married Prince William

13 January 2024 , 10:25

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Kate and the Queen in Leicester in 2012 (Image: Getty Images)

The Royal Family has been widely reported to use a series of lighthearted nicknames for one another and even the most senior royals can't escape the jokey monikers.

A royal author has claimed that the late Queen Elizabeth had a particularly savage nickname for Kate when she first married Prince William in 2011, and she officially joined the House of Windsor. The nickname has been widely reported for a number of years, and is claimed to have its origins in the late Queen's opinion of Kate's career - or lack thereof - before she became a working royal, and her work ethic overall.

The Queen had a savage nickname for Kate (Getty)

Tom Quinn, the author of Gilded Youth: An Intimate History of Growing Up in the Royal Family, claimed in his book that the nickname is Duchess of Doolittle - or DoD for short - and is mainly used in a lighthearted way by her husband these days. This nickname is said to have originated from a critique made by Queen Elizabeth that Kate didn't have a meaty career before her marriage and that - royal expert Phil Dampier claimed - "The Queen once remarked Kate doesn't do very much".

And so the savage nickname was born, with the Express reporting that given the fact the couple were together for about a decade before getting engaged, "many expected her to take on a full-time job before becoming a working royal. However, due to her level of fame, she struggled to set up her own career. Kate worked at the design company Jigsaw and assisted with her parents' business, but many mocked her work ethic."

Kate, in turn, seems to give as good as she gets according to Quinn's book, with her gently mocking nicknames for William, like 'Baldy' - which of course nods to the loss of his one enviable locks. Nicknames are, according to the royal source, a way for the "childlike" royals to take the heat out of tense situations because they aren't always the best at communicating their emotions.

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"The royals are not very good at communicating with one another so this is one way around it. Nicknames are a way of taking the family tension out of things," the source alleged. "They can also be a rather childlike family. They love to play games and they give each other silly presents. I think it's because they have to be so earnest in their public lives."

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Emma Mackenzie