With the constant attention from both the press and the public, famous people, especially those of the royal capacity, have to go to great lengths if they don’t want to be noticed in public. For Prince William and the Royal Family finding some sense of anonymity has to be difficult. However, it seems like the Prince of Wales found one way to avoid that attention during school by using a fake name that’s totally average. And let me tell you, I’m very here for the name he reportedly chose.
According to the Mirror, the media had agreed that the prince should be able to study without being swarmed by the press. While attending the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, he met his now-wife Kate Middleton and got a Master of Arts degree in geography. While he didn’t have the same level of attention he's had throughout his life, there was still a lot of interest, which is why he reportedly decided to go by a different name: Steve.
While William is a pretty average name, there’s a regal quality to it, and it has a rich royal history. However, Steve is a name that you don’t hear that often in the world of royals, and I’d think if they had a name like this they’d go by Steven, not Steve. So, I guess I get why the Prince of Wales decided to go with a very common name that most people wouldn’t bat an eye at.
Officially, Prince William enrolled at St. Andrews as William Wales according to the article. However, there are many who reportedly believe that his friends and classmates would call him by a different name to ward off attention. The story also posits that there’s a chance Middleton also called him Steve since they were good friends and lived in the same building.
I don’t know how well the name Steve worked for him, but it is a fantastic average choice of a name, and if I were a student at St. Andrews, I honestly probably wouldn’t have known he was a royal.
While the disguise might have worked during his time at university, when graduation rolled around if folks didn’t know he was Prince William they found out because Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, King Charles and Queen Camilla all showed up.
Now, Prince William has been back in the limelight for almost 20 years with his wife and three kids, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis (who has already cemented himself as an internet meme king). As these three kids grow up I’m curious to see if they take up average aliases like their father did if they attend university. I’m thinking they could pick something along the lines of James, Emma and Michael, which in my humble opinion are names that are just as magnificently general as Steve.
Something else I’m now curious about is if Prince William's reported alias will be incorporated into Season 6 of The Crown. We’ve gotten our first look at William and Kate in the Netflix series, and we know that part of the season shows them during their time at university, so now the question is will we be seeing William or “Steve” attending classes?
Well, that will be answered when The Crown premieres on the 2023 TV schedule later this year. In the meantime, you can stream the historical drama with a Netflix subscription, and make sure to stay tuned to CinemaBlend as we continue to update you on the Royal Family.
