He was christened Prince Henry Charles Albert David by the Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1984.

But Prince Charles and Princess Diana made it clear very early on that their newborn son would be known as Harry.

He was only called Henry, Charles once revealed, when he had been ‘very, very naughty’.

And, as it turned out, that was quite often.

Harry, who turns 40 today, stepped out of line on several occasions in his early life – and those antics that would be mirrored by his behaviour as a teenager and young adult.

Former police bodyguard Ken Wharfe recalled how he would regularly hear Diana scolding Harry with the words: ‘Henry, no!’

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Prince Harry, aged nearly four sticks his tongue out at photographers after being taken to see his newborn cousin, Princess Beatrice, 1988

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Prince Charles appears to sternly talk into his son’s ear at a polo match in Cirencester, 1990

40 times Harry made us smile as he celebrates milestone birthday

When on holiday with his mother and brother on Richard Branson’s Caribbean island, Necker, in 1990, the youngster hit his sibling with a snooker cue.

On another occasion, he forged his nanny’s handwriting in an attempt to trick his family’s chef, Darren McGrady, into making him pizza for dinner instead of roast chicken.

Harry also famously stuck his tongue out at photographers from the back of his family’s car after being taken to see the newborn Princess Beatrice in 1988.

And, when he was five or six, he wandered out of the grounds of Kensington Palace before using a police radio Inspector Wharfe had given him and saying from the nearby Kensington High Street: ‘I’m outside Tower Records.’

On his sixth birthday, he put his hand over the mouth of his two-year-old cousin, Princess Beatrice, on the Buckingham Palace balcony as the Royal Family gathered to watch the Battle of Britain 50th Anniversary Parade.

So frequent were his antics that his nanny described him as ‘Kamikaze Harry’.

At the age of eight, Harry locked himself in a toilet on a train and then ignored his mother’s pleas to open the door.

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Prince Harry running after the Easter Sunday church service at Windsor, April 1992

He also liked whoopee cushions and used to enjoy dismantling his parents’ hi-fi at Highgrove, and then watching their faces when they switched it on and nothing happened.

A spokesman said shortly after Harry’s birth: ‘He will, of course, be christened Henry, but afterwards he’ll be Harry.

‘There are centuries of tradition involved. The parents are following a very old royal practice.’

Henry was the name given to eight English kings, the final one being the tyrannical King Henry VIII.

The closest other relation to Prince Charles with the name Henry was his great-uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, who died in 1974.

Before Harry’s birth, betting firms reported that the favourites for the new royal name were George at 6-4, followed by Philip at 5-2.

According to his biographer Mark Saunders, Harry was said to have relished the story of King Henry II, who ordered the murder of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury Cathedral.

He also loved the rousing battleground speech in William Shakespeare’s play Henry V that ended, ‘Cry, “God for Harry! England and St George!”‘

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Prince Harry seen aged five at the Cirque Du Soleil, August 1990

Prince Harry at 40: Duke of Sussex hits a milestone birthday

As he grew older, Harry’s naughtiness turned into more serious incidents, such as when he confessed to smoking cannabis at the age of 16 and was ordered to visit a drugs rehabilitation clinic by his father as a result.

And, in an incident that made frontpage headline at the time, Harry went to a fancy dress party in 2005 dressed as a Nazi.

The then-20-year-old attended the birthday bash of a friend with Prince William and Kate Middleton.

The theme of the event was ‘native and colonial’.

Harry wore the desert uniform of General Erwin Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

In his 2022 Netflix series, Harry opened up about his dramatic misstep, saying: ‘It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

‘I felt so ashamed afterwards.’

In 2012, Harry was photographed playing ‘strip billiards’ in his Las Vegas hotel suite with a group of naked women.

The images went around the world and led to question marks over the actions of his protection officers.