Get ready for a change of language: after being crowned along with her husband King Charles at a coronation ceremony at Westminster Abbey on May 6, Camilla will no longer be known as Queen Consort, but as Queen Camilla.

This comes less than a year after Queen Elizabeth passed away on September 8, 2022. Now, when we call her Queen, we seem to be referring to Camilla.

*pause for a moment to let this sink in*

According to the Daily Mail, the first sign of the official change came when Camilla launched the "Queen's Reading Room" (the "Duchess of Cornwall's Reading Room," which was the title before the late King's death). The Court Circular, the official royal engagement record, may soon reflect this change, the magazine said.

"There is an opinion in the palace that the queen consort is cumbersome, and when the time comes, Camilla may find it simpler to be called queen," said one source. 'The Reading Room is a sign of that. Her Majesty is the queen, you know. Prince Philip was officially Prince Consort, but he was not called Prince Consort. Of course, the Queen is still the Queen Consort, so the Palace, of course, will not stop someone from calling Her Majesty the Queen that."[9

Several news organizations, including The Times and The Telegraph, have already dropped "consort" when referring to Camilla.

"For many of us, 'queen' means only one person for as long as we can remember," says Times archivist Rose Wilde. When we were still getting used to the idea of singing "God Save the King," there was a possibility of confusion as to who "the Queen" meant when reporting the Queen's death. This was largely solved by using "Queen Consort" to refer to the former Duchess of Cornwall. This wordy solution no longer seems necessary. The "Consort" is a description, not a title. All successive king's wives were queens' wives, but they were never called queen consort."

The "Queen Consort" is a title that is not used in the same way as "Queen Consort.

(I promise I am not still living in the 1990s.) This news of Camilla's remarkable transformation and image restoration is something that cannot be ignored or exaggerated. (Could you have imagined, for example, if I had told you in 1993 that Camilla Parker-Bowles would be Queen Camilla 30 years later?) When she married Prince Charles in 2005, "it was widely believed that she would not be called Queen when Prince Charles ascended to the throne," the Daily Mail reported. Instead, under the guidance of the royal court, the princess will be referred to only as Princess Consort. Last February, in a statement by Queen Elizabeth, the late Her Majesty expressed her desire for Camilla to be called the Queen Consort, and "now Buckingham Palace appears to be going further, according to insiders," the Daily Mail reported.

Palace officials are reverting to precedent and turning to the woman many of us know as the Queen Mother. However, from 1936 to 1952, during the reign of her husband, King George VI, she was known simply as Queen Elizabeth and not Queen Consort Elizabeth. Similarly, when Queen Victoria died and was succeeded by her son Edward VII, his wife was known as Queen Alexandra by the Duchess of Wales, and "consort" was not used.

"I have a feeling that there will come a time when it will be simpler to refer to Camilla simply as Queen," says one source. Until then, she will be referred to as the Queen Consort."

That time seems to be coming soon.