Prince George Had a Very Special Nickname for Queen Elizabeth

He was the only royal great-grandchild that got to use it.

Jane Barlow/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Jane Barlow/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Prince George's arrival in 2013 made history in more ways than one: the British throne got a new heir and Queen Elizabeth helped revise the laws that governed the line of succession—she made it so that regardless of Prince William and Kate Middleton welcoming a son or daughter, the new arrival would be able to take the throne ahead of their siblings. That royal shift apparently cemented a very special bond between Prince George and his great-grandmother, as he eventually gave her a sweet nickname that nobody else was allowed to use.

"George is only 2-and-a-half and calls her 'gan-gan.' She always leaves a little gift or something in their room when we go and stay and that just shows, I think, her love for her family," Middleton explained in Elizabeth at 90: A Family Tribute, a BBC documentary about the queen that aired in 2016.

Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

Max Mumby/Indigo/Getty Images

In a special Christmas message that the late queen gave after George's arrivaal, she paid tribute to the future monarch, saying: "Here at home my own family is a little larger this Christmas. As so many of you will know, the arrival of a baby gives everyone the chance to contemplate the future with renewed happiness and hope."

Before her passing, the queen had 12 great-grandchildren: Savannah and Isla Phillips; Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis; Mia, Lena, and Lucas Tindall; Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet; Sienna Mapelli Mozzi; and August Brooksbank. Ernest Brooksbank, the second son of Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank, was born after she died in 2022.