LONDON - The little prince has a name: George Alexander Louis.
The announcement Wednesday that Prince William and his wife, Kate, had selected a moniker steeped in British history came as royal officials suggested that the new parents are seeking quiet time away from the flashbulbs and frenzy that accompanied the birth of their first child.
While the news put to rest intense curiosity over what name the couple would choose, the timing and interest around it show how the 2-dayold future heir is already on his way to a lifetime of fanfare and public glare.
Kensington Palace on Wednesday said William and Kate were “delighted to announce” their son’s name, adding that the baby will be known as “His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.”
The name George - borne by six previous kings - befits the boy now third in line to the British throne and was a favorite among British bookmakers, ahead of James. It was the name chosen for his reign by Queen Elizabeth II’s father, George VI, who rallied the nation during World War II.
The first four British monarchs to be called George were of German origin. George I was the ruler of Hanover and 52nd in the line of succession when he assumed the British crown on the death of Queen Anne in 1714, but he was the most eligible Protestant in an age whenthere were concerns that descendants of James II, the Catholic Stuart monarch deposed in 1688, would attempt to seize the throne.
The four Hanoverian Georges reigned in succession until 1830, during a period of political stability in which Britain’s tradition of constitutional monarchy became firmly established. George III, on the throne from 1760 to 1820, was the longest-reigning king in British history. George V, who reigned from 1910 to 1936, changed the family name to Windsor from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha amid anti-German feeling during World War I.
Alexander is a name shared by three medieval Scottishkings, and the name Louis could be a tribute to Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle to the queen’s husband, Philip, and the last British viceroy of India before that nation gained its independence in 1947. William’s father, Prince Charles, was close to Mountbatten, who was assassinated by the Irish Republican Army in 1979.
The announcement of the name, just two days after the baby’s birth, was quick by royal standards. Elizabeth and Philip, the duke of Edinburgh, took a month before settling on the name Charles for the Prince of Wales. Charles and his thenwife, Princess Diana, took a week before settling on William’s four names.
While it is normally the case that a king rules under his given name, precedent shows that the prince is not hidebound by George. The first name ofGeorge VI was actually Albert, but he picked his fourth name to use as sovereign in honor of his father, George V. Palace officials say William and Kate are spending “private and quiet time for them to get to know their son.”
The young prince’s relationship with the media appeared to have gotten off to a good start - a good sign for a royal family that has had tense moments with the media.
The baby slept through his first photo opportunity Tuesday outside London’s St. Mary’s Hospital, while his parents beamed as they chatted easily with reporters.
“I thought, is this an Oscar-winning performance?” said Ingrid Seward, editor in chief of Majesty magazine. “But I think they were so genuinely overjoyed that they wanted to show off the baby.”
Meanwhile, well-wishers waiting outside St. Mary’s Hospital in London were led to think that a town crier announcing the birth of the prince of Cambridge had the royal seal of approval.
Bell in one hand, scroll in the other, Tony Appleton marked Monday’s royal birth by belting out an old-timey proclamation which began “Oyez, Oyez” and announced the arrival of “the first born of their royal highness, the duke and duchess of Cambridge.”
Appleton is in fact a crier, but in Romford, a commuter town just east of London, and in Bury St. Edmunds, a market town in southeastern England - not Buckingham Palace. In an interview, he said Wednesday that he simply showed up in costume after getting a tipoff from a British journalist that Kate had given birth.
“I’m a royalist. I love the royal family,” he said by telephone from Romford, but he acknowledged that he had no official royal role. “I came unannounced.”
After leaving the hospital, William and Kate introduced the baby to his uncle Prince Harry and to great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, who was keen to see the baby before she starts her annual summer vacation in Scotland later this week. Then they headed to see Kate’s parents in a village near London.
Information for this article was contributed by Raphael Satter of The Associated Press and by Thomas Penny of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 8 on 07/25/2013