Will Kate Middleton Be Called 'King Mother' If William Dies During His Reign?

Royal family fans are the type of people who want to get their bases covered. Thus, they've already thought of what Prince Charles' regnal name might be once he succeeds Queen Elizabeth II. In fact, they've even contemplated on whether or not Prince William might opt to retain his name once he succeeds his father.

And here's something that's even stretching the realm of advanced thinking by quite a bit. Somebody already thought of the possibility that William might pass away ahead of his wife, Kate Middleton, and how it may affect her royal title.

A royal family fan posted the question "If Queen Catherine survives King William, will she then be known as 'The King Mother' after Prince George ascends the throne?" on Quora to get input from like-minded users of the question-and-answer website. Interestingly, the question garnered a lot of responses, which goes to show that the question has been on the minds of other fans as well.

But fans were quick to notice the rather awkward title "The King Mother" used in the query. "No. There's no such title," Quora user Eileen Wood explained.

And "The Queen Mother" won't cut it either. "If she outlives William, she will become 'Her Majesty Queen Catherine,'" Wood said. "There's no reason for her to be called 'The Queen Mother,'" she added.

But there's actually a proper title for a widow of a king. "No, as noted by other posters the proper title of the widow of the King is Dowager Queen," another Quora user, Seren Verch Dafydd, explained. "The style [how you speak or write about the person] for the Dowager Queen, is Her Majesty Queen Mary," the user added.

However, there might be a few considerations as to why some queens would prefer not to be addressed as Dowager Queen. "As she [Queen Elizabeth] was only 51 or so when her daughter became Queen, the elder lady felt 'Dowager Queen' sounded 'too old,'" Wood wrote.

The "Queen Mother" title officially came to be because there were two Queen Elizabeth's at the time of the current monarch's coronation. "It was a unofficial title until 1952 when the title HM Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother was created for the mother of Elizabeth II to differentiate her from her daughter," Quora user Dan Weinberg explained.

Thus, the Queen Mother title refers only to Elizabeth II's mother. If Kate becomes a widow during William's reign, she will simply be called Queen Catherine.

"Most former Queens Consort are just known as Queen," Weinberg wrote. "It is like that if Catherine survives William and he has been King then she will be known as 'Queen Catherine'. Technically, during William's reign she will normally be referred to as HM The Queen."