Why is it called the Union Jack?

The national flag of the United Kingdom is not seen in everyday life anything like as commonly as the national flag of some other countries, most notably the star and stripes in the United States. It has been much in evidence today, however, because of the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.

The flag is usually called the Union Jack. But why? The most widely held explanation is that it comes from the Latin version of the name James which in turn was the name of the first monarch to rule both England (as James I) and Scotland (as James VI). James became king of both countries in 1603 and promoted a flag for the two countries in 1606.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 29th, 2011 at 5:32 pm and is filed under British current affairs, History. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Comments

  • Alex
    May 2nd, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    Hi Roger,

    Is the Union Jack combined by both England Flag and Scotish Flag? Just the two?

    Anything to do with the Irish or N. Ireland Flag?

    thanks.

  • Roger Darlington
    May 2nd, 2011 at 11:00 pm

    The current version of the Union Jack is a combination of the crosses of England, Scotland and Ireland as you can see here.

 




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