The story behind Prince Harry’s REAL name… and why he was only called it when he was ‘very, very naughty’ (and that was quite often)

In December 1984 he was baptised Prince Henry Charles Albert David by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

But Prince Charles and Princess Diana made it clear early on that their newborn son would be called Harry.

He was only called Henry, Charles once revealed, when he had been ‘very, very naughty’.

And that turned out to happen quite often.

Harry, who turns 40 today, made several mistakes in his younger years, behaviors that would later be reflected in his teenage and young adult behavior.

Former police bodyguard Ken Wharfe recalls hearing Diana regularly scold Harry, saying, “Henry, no!”

Prince Charles appears to speak sternly into his son’s ear during a polo match in Cirencester, 1990

When the young man was on holiday with his mother and brother on Necker, Richard Branson’s Caribbean island, in 1990, he hit his brother or sister with a snooker cue.

On another occasion, he forged his nanny’s handwriting in an attempt to trick his family’s chef, Darren McGrady, into making him pizza instead of roast chicken for dinner.

Harry also stuck his tongue out at photographers from the backseat of his family car after seeing newborn Princess Beatrice in 1988.

And when he was five or six, he walked out of the grounds of Kensington Palace using a police radio that Inspector Wharfe had given him. From nearby Kensington High Street, he said, ‘I’m outside Tower Records.’

On his sixth birthday, he placed his hand over the mouth of his two-year-old niece, Princess Beatrice, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace as the royal family gathered to watch the parade marking the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

His antics were so frequent that his nanny described him as ‘Kamikaze Harry’.

At the age of eight, Harry locked himself in a train toilet, then ignored his mother’s pleas to open the door.

Prince Harry runs after Easter Sunday church service in Windsor, April 1992

He also liked whoopee cushions and enjoyed taking apart his parents’ hi-fi system in Highgrove and watching their faces when they turned it on and nothing happened.

Shortly after Harry’s birth, a spokesman said: ‘He will of course be christened Henry, but after that he will be called Harry.

“There are centuries of tradition involved. The parents are following a very old royal custom.”

Henry was the name given to eight English kings, the last of which was the tyrannical King Henry VIII.

Prince Charles’ closest other relative named Henry was his great-uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1974.

Before Harry’s birth, bookmakers reported that George (1.93 metres) and Philip (1.78 metres) were the favourites for the new royal name.

According to his biographer Mark Saunders, Harry would have enjoyed the story of King Henry II ordering the murder of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

He also loved the stirring battlefield speech in William Shakespeare’s play Henry V, which ended with: ‘Cry, “God for Harry! England and St. George!”‘

Prince Harry seen at age five at the Cirque Du Soleil, August 1990

As Harry grew older, his mischievous behavior became more serious. At 16, he confessed to smoking cannabis and was sent to rehab by his father.

And in an incident that made headlines at the time, Harry went to a fancy dress party in 2005 dressed as a Nazi.

The then 20-year-old attended a friend’s birthday party with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The theme of the event was ‘indigenous and colonial’.

Harry wore the desert uniform of General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

In his 2022 Netflix series, Harry spoke candidly about his dramatic misstep: “It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

‘I was so ashamed of it afterwards.’

In 2012, Harry was photographed playing strip billiards in his Las Vegas hotel suite with a group of naked women.

The images went around the world and raised questions about the actions of his security guards.