Diana, Charles are top names for royal baby

William Shakespeare’s Juliet Capulet famously asked: “What’s in a name?”

The answer is – if you’re the first-born child of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and third in line to the throne – a lot.

William and Kate will have to come up with a name fit for a potential future king or queen. Sorry, Pippa.

Within minutes of Monday’s announcement that the Duchess is in the early stages of her pregnancy, people around the world were delivering their suggestions for names.

Should the couple honour William’s late mother Diana? Or pay homage to his grandmother with Elizabeth? If it’s a boy, will it be named for William’s father Charles?

British bookmakers are giving Diana, Elizabeth and Charles favourable odds but other royal names worth betting on include Alexandra, Victoria and Mary for a girl and John, James, Philip, George, Edward and Andrew for a boy.

New royals are typically given historical names passed down through the monarchy — but William and Kate could stray from protocol and, in doing so, spark a worldwide trend.

Royals also have multiple middle names, allowing the couple to honour people in both of their families.

The most popular names for babies in the UK and Wales in 2011, according to public records, were Harry and Amelia. William ranked 10th for boys and Catherine didn’t even make the top 100 (although Katie was No. 57).

Among the top names for girls were Olivia, Lily, Jessica and Emily. New names in the top 100 include Bella, Willow, Elsie, Kayla, Francesca and Lydia. For boys, the names behind Harry were Oliver, Jack, Alfie and Charlie — with Tommy, Blake, Frankie, Elijah and Jackson joining the top 100.

Viewers of Global Toronto’s The Morning Show weighed in Tuesday with their suggestions, with Diana a clear frontrunner if it’s a girl. Sandra Phillips, though, disagreed.

“There are already too many comparisons between Diana and Kate,” she wrote on The Morning Show‘s Facebook page. “This poor child would have very big shoes to fill and would always be compared to Diana.”

Linda Garland Taggart came up with Prince Spencer William Mountbatten or Princess Mary Catherine Diana Elizabeth. Carolyn Hives proposed George or Victoria, Lynette Stuckless suggested Spencer if it’s a boy, and Janis Whitehead thought the parents could combine their names and call the baby Killam.

Allyson MacKinnon’s response echoed, perhaps, that of the majority of Canadians. “Whatever… it is none of our business.”
POLL: What do you think Will and Kate should name their first born?