Kate Middleton is one of the world’s most talked-about women, from her romance with Prince William to their three Cambridge children — Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis – who regularly delight the world.

Kate is known by numerous names, including Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, and (according to her passport) Princess, but it is the name ‘Catherine’ that has caused the most confusion over the years, with William and other royal family members frequently referring to her by the moniker.

Aside from royal family curtsy protocol, one of the many things that continues to perplex us is why people still refer to the Duchess of Cambridge by her maiden name. Why hasn’t Kate Middleton’s name changed after ten years of marriage?

Kate Middleton has been in the public glare since it was revealed that she and Prince William were dating in 2003. We’ve been hearing her name for over two decades.

Last topic reappeared this year, with a source claiming that the Duchess of Cambridge consciously changed her name from one to the other.

The most straightforward explanation for why we still refer to her as Kate Middleton is because it is the moniker we all “grew up with.” When we first met Kate, she was Prince William’s longstanding girlfriend, not yet a member of the royal family (or a fashion superstar) herself. Headlines screamed about their romance (“Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Glam Polo Match Afternoon,” for example), and part of the attractiveness of their relationship, a significant piece of the story, was that William’s girlfriend was not from an aristocratic or royal family. As a result, Kate’s surname “Middleton” served as a reminder of the “fairy-tale” quality of their romance: Kate meeting and then marrying an actual prince might happen to you (you know, if you bumped into a man in a Duane Reade after work one day who asked you on a date, only for him to reveal at Shake Shack later that he was in fact a prince).

‘I hear that in the past few weeks, the former accessories buyer has quietly informed friends that she would like to drop the informal “Kate” and in future wishes to be known by her full name: “Catherine”’, Helliker said in a 2008 Sunday Express column that has just emerged.

And Kate Middleton’s celebrity may potentially work in her benefit. “It doesn’t hurt her that the American press especially refers to her as Kate Middleton,” Arianne Chernock, a Boston University professor who studies modern British history, told Vanity Fair. “It’s precisely her middle-class origins, and that name, which won her over to so many people in the first place. So that reminder can only help her.”

While Princess Di was known as the “People’s Princess,” and was of course popular and immensely “relatable,” she was already a member of the realm of royals and aristocracy before she became known to the general public as Prince Charles’ lover, and then wife (she became Lady Diana Spencer, in 1975, when her father took on the title Earl Spencer).

When Prince William married Kate, he gave her the feminine version of his title, Prince William of Wales, transforming her into Princess William of Wales. Queen Elizabeth also bestowed the titles of Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the couple at the moment. Some websites refer to the Duchess of Cambridge as Princess Kate, however there is one major problem: Kate cannot and will never be Princess Kate because she was not born into the royal line. You must be born into the role of prince or princess to have the term prince or princess before your name. As a result, it is proper to refer to Prince William’s daughter as Princess Charlotte.