What's Really Going On With Princess Eugenie's Kids' Titles

Princess Eugenie, the youngest daughter of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Sarah Ferguson, announced that she was expecting a third child with her husband Jack Brooksbank via Instagram in May 2026. The photo that accompanied the announcement featured her two sons, August and Ernest Brooksbank, looking down at a sonogram photo. Like other babies born into the royal family, this brings up the question of how royal family members get their titles, because there are multiple ways it can happen. For example, Princess Eugenie and her older sister Princess Beatrice were born princesses because their paternal grandmother, the late Queen Elizabeth II, was the reigning monarch when they were born and bestowed honorary titles on them. Beatrice and Eugenie even kept these titles amid the controversy that caused Andrew to lose his. But Princess Eugenie's sons and her baby on the way don't have titles and never will.

In the United Kingdom, the only babies who can receive prince or princess titles are the children of the reigning monarch — in 2026 that's King Charles III — and male-descendant grandchildren of the monarch. Beatrice's children fit in neither category and she's not able to pass her title down to them, even if she got to keep it when she got married. 

Speaking of her marriage, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie didn't get new titles on their wedding days like their cousins Princes William and Harry, because of an antiquated royal custom. Titles such as duke or earl are gifted to men from the royal family upon marriage, but not women. However, Princess Eugenie's title did technically change — she became Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie, Mrs. Jack Brooksbank  — but this won't affect her children. Because Jack Brooksbank is a private citizen and marketing executive, he also has no royal titles to pass down. All this considered, their children are styled as Master August and Master Ernest Brooksbank.

Princess Eugenie's sister Princess Beatrice married into a different situation in July 2020. Her husband, Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi, comes from an impressive Italian family. His father, Count Alessandro Mapelli Mozzi's family was given their titles by Vittorio Emanuele III, King of Italy, in 1913. Although it is a courtesy title and not an official one, it was passed down to Edoardo at birth. So, when the couple married, Beatrice became an Italian contessa and nobile donna, a term that means "noblewoman." As the eldest son in the family, Edoardo will also inherit the 18th-century Villa Mapelli Mozzi palace in Bergamo, Italy, upon the death of his father.

"Edoardo is the only male descendent taking the family into the next generation. He is a count — his wife will be a countess automatically and any of their children will be counts or nobile donna," Count Alessandro told the Daily Mail in 2020. When Princess Beatrice married Edoardo, he already had a male heir, son Christopher Woolf, known as "Wolfie." Upon Christopher's birth to Edoardo and his ex-partner, architect Dara Huang, he became a count. 

So, it makes sense that the couple's two daughters, Sienna Elizabeth (born in September 2021) and Athena Elizabeth Rose (born in January 2025), will be known as "countess" and "nobile donna" in the future. Although Beatrice isn't a working royal in England, she is ninth in line to the throne as of 2026 behind her father Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and cousin Prince Harry's daughter, Princess Lilibet of Sussex. Her daughters Sienna and Athena follow her at 10th and 11th. Basically, it's highly unlikely that any of Andrew's decedents will ever have official royal duties in England, but they still enjoy many perks.