The name of the newborn princess – second child of Prince William and Kate Middleton and sister to Prince George – will not be announced on Sunday, May 3rd.
The princess, who is fourth in line to the British throne, was delivered at 08:34 BST on May 2nd at St Mary’s Hospital in London, and weighed 8lbs 3oz (3.7kg).
Bookmakers say Charlotte and Alice have emerged as the favorite names for the princess, followed by Olivia, Victoria and Elizabeth.
Royal baby names in Britain’s history:
Charlotte, the feminine form of Charles, has a long royal pedigree and became popular in the 18th century when it was the name of George III’s queen.
The King bought Buckingham House in 1761 for his wife Queen Charlotte to use as a family home close to St James’s Palace – it became known as the Queen’s House and is now Buckingham Palace.
Charles is the name of two former Kings and of the Prince of Wales, the princess’s grandfather.
Charlotte also has a connection on Kate Middleton’s side, as the middle name of her sister Pippa Middleton.
Alice, the previous bookmakers’ favorite, was the name of Prince Philip’s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg and of his great-grandmother, who was the third child of Queen Victoria.
During the First World War, his mother’s family changed Battenberg, the family name, to Mountbatten – the name which the Duke of Edinburgh adopted when he became a naturalized British subject in 1947.
Other royal Alices include Queen Elizabeth II’s aunt by marriage, Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester and one of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.
Olivia has no immediately apparent royal connections, it was the second most popular girls’ name for babies born in England and Wales in 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Victoria and Elizabeth are arguably the most famous female names in British royal history – with Queen Victoria the longest reigning monarch, and the present Queen Elizabeth II set to surpass her record on September 9, 2015.
The Queen Mother was also called Elizabeth, and it is the middle name of Kate’s mother, Carole Middleton.
Queen Victoria is associated with Britain’s great age of industrial expansion, economic progress and, particularly, empire.
While the 45-year reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England, the daughter of Henry VIII and the last Tudor monarch, is considered one of the most glorious in English history, including the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the first works of Shakespeare.
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