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The Mountbatten surname derives from the German town of Battenberg, in Hesse.

Prince Louis of Battenberg changed his surname to Mountbatten ( its literal English translation ) during the First World War at the request of King George V. When then-Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, a member of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg ( the royal house of Denmark and Norway and the deposed royal house of Greece ) took British citizenship, he used this surname since he descends from the Battenberg family through his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.