Clarence House yesterday issued a pained denial of claims that the Prince of Wales has held private discussions with "trusted friends" about the possibility of reigning as George VII rather than risk the negative connotations attached to the name King Charles.
The only British monarch to have been publicly tried and executed for treason is Charles I, beheaded in Whitehall at the end of the civil war in 1649. His clever, cynical son, who reigned as Charles II, is as much remembered for his lively love life as for his achievements.
The last of the would-be Stuart monarchs, Bonnie Prince Charlie, was known to some as Charles III.
He badly let down his Jacobite followers during the 1745 rebellion against the Hanoverian dynasty whose heir - with a non-German rebranding as Windsor - Prince Charles is.
Officially the Prince's office said yesterday: "No decision has been made and it will be made at the time."
This is a formula which tactfully acknowledges that the Queen is in excellent health at 80 and that the Queen Mother only recently died at 101.
Privately senior officials were scornful of a page one Times headline on Christmas Eve which declared: Call Me George, Suggests Charles.
Claiming to be based on "many conversations" between the prince and close friends it quoted one as explaining that "the name Charles is tinged with so much sadness".
One such friend told the Guardian: "Anyone who knows the Prince of Wales knows he does not sit around talking to his chums, discussing what he wants to be called. Inasmuch as officials have discussed it with him at accession planning meetings the thinking was that he would remain Charles."
Only last week a Fabian Society pamphlet reinforced complaints from the political right that British history is badly taught in school, with too much emphasis on Henry VIII and the Nazis.
So Prince Charles's "friends" may have been over-sensitive in worrying that many voters would know that Charles I suffered the ultimate form of ejection from the Big Brother House or that the bloke who so successfully chatted up Nell Gwynn - something of a chav in her time - was also a Charlie.
But the prince is famously introverted about his image as he waits patiently for the sad event which will finally give his life its declared purpose, provided he outlives his reigning parent as many princes of Wales have not, including Henry VIII's elder brother Arthur.
Marrying Arthur's widow, Katherine of Aragon, caused Henry more trouble than any of his "trusted friends" spotted at the time, an oversight which cost several of them their heads.
Prince Charles can also be pretty tough on friends who let him down, for instance by gossiping to reporters.
He is also called Arthur - Charles Philip (after his Greek father) Arthur George to be precise. As in the 15th century, Arthur is a symbol of resurgent national feeling which might not go well with Britain's EU allies.
In any case, the country's only other King Arthur is generally regarded as a hard act to follow.
For an image-conscious monarch in search of brand strength that leaves the Hanoverian Georges, a mixed bunch who range from George III who lost America and his own marbles to George IV, a rake, and George V, who was privately virtuous but a fierce parent who boasted that he would make his children as frightened of him as he had been of Edward VII.
One possible result was that his own Bertie stammered all his life, but grew into public affection for staying in London during the Blitz and marrying a smart woman.
Royal name changes are not without precedent.
Both Edward VII and George VI were privately known as Bertie. Edward VIII was known as David.
And if the Queen and her husband had not been royal they would have been Phil and Betty Glucksberg.