Meghan Markle Shares Her No. 1 Rule for Baby Names: ‘I Will Say This to Every Woman in the World’

Meghan Markle has some wise advice for parents-to-be.

In the season finale episode of her Lemonada Media podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, which dropped on May 27, the Duchess of Sussex hosted Spanx founder Sara Blakely in a conversation about navigating motherhood and launching a business. Meghan, 43, compared starting a brand to a “SurveyMonkey” due to the pressure to get “everyone’s approval.”

“You’re like, ‘What do you think?’ ” the Duchess of Sussex said.

“It’s no different — I will say this to every woman in the world or every person in the world who’s going to have a child — if you have an idea about what you are going to name that baby, you keep it so close to your heart, until that baby is born and it’s named. Don’t ask anyone’s opinion,” she continued.

Meghan is a mom to a son, Prince Archie, 6, and a daughter, Princess Lilibet, 3, with her husband, Prince Harry.

Meghan and Harry did discuss the idea of their daughter’s name with the royal family, as it was inspired by his grandmother Queen Elizabeth’s childhood nickname.

A spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex previously told PEOPLE, “The Duke spoke with his family in advance of the announcement, in fact, his grandmother was the first family member he called. During that conversation, he shared their hope of naming their daughter Lilibet in her honor. Had she not been supportive, they would not have used the name.”

When it came to their son, the couple revealed in 2022 that they were choosing between Archie and Harrison as his first name, and they ended up choosing to use Harrison as a middle name.

On the podcast, Meghan said naming a baby was “not dissimilar to naming your company.” The Duchess of Sussex initially revealed her lifestyle brand would be called American Riviera Orchard, but she later changed the name to As ever.

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In an Instagram video, she said, “Last year, I had thought, ‘American Riviera, that sounds like such a great name.’ It’s my neighborhood; it’s a nickname for Santa Barbara, but it limited me to things that were just manufactured and grown in this area. Then Netflix came on, not just as my partner in the show, but as my partner in my business. which was huge. So I thought about it, and I’ve been waiting for a moment to share a name that I had secured in 2022, and this is the moment, and it’s called As Ever.”

“As Ever essentially means as it’s always been, and if you’ve followed me since 2014 with The Tig, you know I’ve always loved cooking and crafting and gardening — this is what I do,” she says. “And I haven’t been able to share it with you in the same way for the past few years, but now I can, so as things are starting to trickle out there, I wanted you to hear it from me first.”

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Elsewhere in May 27’s podcast episode, Meghan noted that people often overlook everything that working mothers are juggling. 

“It’s something that I think people often forget,” she said. “People forget that Lili is 3 and Archie’s 5 [now 6]. So you look at the past five, six years of my life, it’s with being pregnant or with a newborn or with a toddler and then another one.”

When Blakely asked about Archie and Lili, Meghan replied, “They are so grown!”