Hilarious fake name Prince William used to go unnoticed while at university
During his time at St Andrews University, Prince William not only graduated with a Scottish Master of Arts degree in geography, but he also met his future wife, Kate Middleton the Princess of Wales.
Just like any other student, it was agreed that the prince would be afforded complete media privacy during his studies so that he could be as normal as possible.
While coverage was kept to only a handful of rare and agreed upon photoshoots, Prince William came up with an additional tactic to secure even more secrecy - by choosing to go by a different name on certain occasions.
As he had enrolled under the already normal name of 'William Wales', the prince decided to go one further and come up with a fake name that he would use to deter any unwanted attention.
The name he chose to go by was 'Steve' - but this isn't William's only nickname as he was also known as 'Wombat' by his mother. In an NBC interview in 2007, William admitted to being stuck with the name, “I can’t get rid of it now,” he said.
“It began when I was two. I’ve been rightfully told because I can’t remember back that far, but when we went to Australia with our parents, and the wombat, you know, that’s the local animal, so I just basically got called that, not because I look like a wombat, or maybe I do.”
But Prince William isn't the only member of the Royal Family to have used another normal name in public to protect his privacy.
A story emerged about Prince George telling a dog walker near the Middleton family home in Berkshire that his name was Archie.
Speaking about the encounter the woman said: "I was asked by a police minder not to take a photo of the children, which I didn't, but George started stroking my dog.
"Just to be friendly I engaged in a bit of small talk and I asked George what his name was, even though obviously I knew it.
"To my astonishment he said 'I'm called Archie' with a big smile on his face. I don't know why he calls himself Archie but kids often play with their names and I think it's lovely."
According to The Sun, The Princess of Wales used to use two hilarious nicknames for her husband, which were reported to be "baldy" and “big willy". Prince William is also said to have used the terms "babykins" and "DoD", which stands for "Duchess of Dolittle".
More recently, landscape gardener Charlie Albone told Grazia U.K. that when Prince William asked his wife about a plant she replied: “Babe, we’ve got those. We’ve got loads of those.”
Another one of the designers at the show revealed to Hello! that the prince stopped to look at poppies and asked Kate: “Could you make one of these, darling?’”
