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They use Kate because it fits conveniently into tabloid headlines. And they use Middleton out of reverse snobbery, cutting the royals down to size with a thoroughly middle-class surname. It's a sad comment on people in general, and a recent habit I think - nobody would have called the Queen and her late sister Betty and Peggy; Charles was never Charlie nor Andrew Andy, Edward Ted or Anne Annie. But Diana was Di from the start - 'shy Di' - and that set the pattern.