Meghan Markle and Prince Harry gifted traditional South African name for baby Archie during official tour

Name means 'pillar of strength'

Duke and Duchess of Sussex receive South African name for baby Archie (Getty)

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been presented with a traditional South African Xhosa name for their son Archie during their official visit.

For the couple’s first official engagement in South Africa, Meghan Markle and Prince Harry visited the Nyanga township, where they met representatives from The Justice Desk, an organisation that supports women’s and children’s rights.

During the visit, the royals were given a present for baby Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, which included granting him the name Ntsika, which means “pillar of strength”.

“When your beautiful boy was born, you gave him the name Archie,” Jessica Dewhurst, The Justice Desk’s executive director, said during the visit. “The name Archie means bravery and strength. So to welcome Archie home, your family at the Justice Desk has given him the traditional South African name Ntsika.

“This name, of Xhosa African origin, means pillar of strength. May you always be a pillar of strength for those who need you.”

According to Dewhurst, who spoke to Harper’s Bazaar, the name was featured on a “beautiful frame with a hand-drawn meaning written underneath the name - and a little rhino because Harry loves them”.

Dewhurst also revealed that the name was chosen by the local township Gogos or grandmothers for the four-month-old royal.

“Ntsika is the equivalent to Archie, which means bravery and strength, so it just seemed like a perfect fit,” Dewhurst said, adding that it is “quite traditional for foreign visitors to township communities to be given a South African name”.

“South Africa is the cradle of mankind, this is where the human race began, so we are all children of this country.”

Before the couple was presented with the present, which included a small Justice Desk sweatshirt for Archie, the duchess gave a speech about female empowerment and her position in the world as a “woman of colour”.

“May I just say that while I am here with my husband as a member of the royal family, I want you to know that for me, I am here as a mother, as a wife, as a woman, as a woman of colour and as your sister,” Markle said to cheers from the crowd.

During their second day in South Africa, the duke and duchess discussed the continued stigma that surrounds mental health issues during a visit to Monwabisi Beach in Cape Town.