BRITISH ROYAL BABY NAMED GEORGE ALEXANDER LOUIS

Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate on Wednesday named
their baby boy George Alexander Louis, sticking firmly to royal tradition with a first name used
by six previous monarchs.
George was the bookmakers’ clear favourite for the third-in-line to the throne as it pays
apparent tribute to Queen Elizabeth II’s father King George VI, the infant’s great-great-
grandfather, who died in 1952.
“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their
son George Alexander Louis. The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of
Cambridge,” Kensington Palace said in a statement.
The baby will not automatically be King George VII whenever he comes to the throne, however,
as there have been reports that William’s father Prince Charles may take that title when he
becomes king.
The announcement came just hours after the queen visited William and Kate at Kensington
Palace, their London residence, and met her newborn great-grandson for the first time.
The 87-year-old monarch would have given final clearance for the name to ensure that it was
in keeping with the traditions of the House of Windsor and a monarchy that has lasted more
than 1,000 years.
Louis is one of William’s middle names and was also the first name of Lord Louis Mountbatten,
the Viceroy of India and a mentor to Prince Charles. Mountbatten was killed in an IRA bombing
in the 1970s.
Bookmakers had George and James as the favourites.
The naming was relatively quick by royal standards. Charles and his first wife Diana took a
week to announce William’s name in 1982, while the world had to wait a month after Charles
was born in 1948.
Under British law, parents have 42 days to register the birth — and the name — of their child. It
is not clear whether William and Kate have officially done so yet.
The queen earlier spent just over half an hour at the palace, where the young couple spent the
first night after leaving hospital with the baby, before she was driven away in a green Bentley
limousine.
She has said she is “thrilled” about the latest addition to the family, who will one day succeed
her as head of state of Britain and monarch of 15 Commonwealth realms around the globe.
A few hours later, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge took the little prince to stay with his
maternal grandparents in the village of Bucklebury west of London, arriving in a convoy of
four-by-four vehicles with police outriders.
Carole and Michael Middleton, self-made millionaires from a party goods business, visited the
baby in hospital on Tuesday, where Kate’s mother pronounced her first grandson “absolutely
beautiful”.
Prince George’s uncle Prince Harry — William’s younger brother, who has been knocked down
to fourth in line to the throne — and Kate’s sister Pippa Middleton made separate visits to the
couple at the palace.
William is taking two weeks of paternity leave from his job as a Royal Air Force search-and-
rescue pilot, and the couple, both 31, are expected to take some time away from the cameras.
“This is now private and quiet time for them to get to know their son,” a palace spokesman
said.
Royal aides said the couple had no immediate plans to hire a nanny, and Kate is expected to
rely on her mother for support in the early weeks.
– Echoes of William’s own birth –
The new baby was revealed to the world when the royal couple left St Mary’s Hospital in
London on Tuesday evening to huge cheers from the international media massed outside.
When the queen met her new heir on Wednesday, she became the first British monarch to meet
a third-generation direct heir since Queen Victoria a century ago.
The monarch, wearing a turquoise floral outfit, made the visit without her husband Prince
Philip, 92, who is convalescing after exploratory surgery on his abdomen last month.
The queen’s private visit — she was quickly whisked in and out of the palace — contrasted
with William and Kate’s highly public outing on Tuesday.
Wearing a cornflower-blue polka-dot dress as she emerged from the private Lindo wing of the
hospital, a beaming Kate said the couple were feeling “very emotional” and that it was a
“special time”.
The baby behaved impeccably, raising a tiny hand above his white blankets — his first royal
wave of a lifetime that will be spent in the public eye.
“He’s got a good pair of lungs on him, that’s for sure,” William joked, adding: “We are still
working on a name so we will have that as soon as we can.”
British newspapers noted the similarities between William and Kate’s appearance and that of
Charles and Diana following William’s birth at the same hospital.
Kate was wearing the sapphire engagement ring that belonged to Diana, while her empire-line
dress, a bespoke design by Jenny Packham, also drew strong comparisons with that worn
three decades ago by the late princess, which also had a polka-dot pattern.
Congratulations have poured in from around the world, while Chinese fortune tellers predicted
the baby will grow up to be determined but introverted — and a big hit with the ladies.