BORIS Johnson is a household name and one that is known across the globe.
However, it turns out that the Conservative leader was not actually born a Boris. Here we explain all.
What is Boris Johnson’s full name?
Boris Johnson’s full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson.
The Prime Minister’s real first name Alexander is reportedly a name he still uses with his family who apparently call him “Al”.
He was actually called Alexander as a boy but in later years he ditched the name in favour of his middle name Boris.
Although he has never confirmed why he chose to use his middle name rather than his first, many believe he wanted to show a more original name to raise his public profile.
The ‘de Pfell, part of Boris’ name is believed to derive from Bavarian and German descent.
According to BBC’s, ‘Why Do You Think You Are’, the PM has previously spoken about growing up with stories about his grandmother “Granny Butter’s” posh ancestry and the significance of the de Pfeffel name.
She claimed that the name derived from an ancient line of French nobility and use to refer to the large wooden chest that she owned containing ‘the de Pfeffel silver’.
Appearing on the programme, it further transpired that his grandmother was a descendant of Prince Paul Von Wurttemberg and the German prince was, in turn, a direct descendant of George II.
This means Boris Johnson is distantly related, although very far removed, to the present Royal Family.
He is also related to all the royal houses of Europe, including the Swedish and Dutch royal families, as well as the Romanoffs.
Was Boris Johnson born in USA?
Boris Johnson was born in New York City, USA, to his then 23-year-old father Stanley Johnson and 22-year-old Charlotte Fawcett.
The pair had already married in 1963 before moving to the US.
Johnson then had spells in Washington and Connecticut as well as in Brussels, Belgium before attending boarding school in England.
He won a scholarship to Eton College and later studied classics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he became President of the Oxford Union in 1986.
He started working life as a journalist first at The Times and later became The Daily Telegraph’s Brussels correspondent and was the paper’s assistant editor between 1994 and 1999.
Johnson then edited The Spectator from 1999 to 2005.
During that time, his political career began as he became the MP for Henley in 2001 and served in the Shadow Cabinet.
