All eyes are currently on the Royal Family thanks to the impending arrival of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle‘s baby. The new royal baby could arrive at any time, leaving many speculating on when the child will arrive and what its name will be.
But a fun fact is that Baby Sussex’s father almost went by a very different name along with brother Prince William. According to PEOPLE, Princess Diana was initially given two names that rubbed her the wrong way, forcing her to buck with tradition and choose her own names.
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“The alternative was Arthur and Albert,” Diana revealed in Andrew Morton’s Diana: Her True Story. “No thank you. There weren’t fights over it. It was just a fait accompli.”
That means she made the decision to ditch the suggested names before those who suggested them knew it. Diana was responsible for both William and Henry — Harry’s official name — and never seemed to look back.
Arthur and Albert did get some use though. William and Harry’s middle names feature both respectively, with William Arthur Phillip Louis and Henry Charles Albert David. PEOPLE makes note that Meghan Markle actually goes by her middle name, opting to drop Rachel for her career and Royal life.
PEOPLE adds that Baby Sussex will remain unnamed publicly for a few days. Tradition keeps the formal announcement of a name dropping well after the birth, with only the sex coming before along with the birth announcement. The wrinkle here is how Markle and Harry are bucking all traditions with their birth. The couple won’t be announcing the birth publicly until they’re ready and have spent enough private time with the new arrival. That means either a longer than normal wait for the baby’s name or a reversal with the name coming long before the couple’s first public appearance with the baby.
For comparison, Prince William and Kate Middleton shared the name of Louis Arthur Charles, their third and latest child, four days after giving birth. The couple cut that time in half for the births of Princess George and Princess Charlotte, announcing their names only two days after their birth.
Whenever it comes, there is already quite the line for people laying money on a potential name for Baby Sussex.
According to PEOPLE, U.K. bookies Ladbrokes are taking bets on Baby Sussex’s name, with many hoping that the child is female and earns a nod to Harry’s mother, Princess Diana. Other favorites are Elizabeth after Queen Elizabeth II, actually tugging at the top spot for female names. They both have to contend with Alice, Mary, and Alexandria on the female side.
The male names are reportedly tight between Albert, Arthur, and Phillip. But there are also many other names in contention, like Alfred, Charles, James, and Alexander.
There is also the thin possibility that Meghan gets a say in the name and goes complete non-traditional, possibly pulling from her mother’s longtime nickname for her daughter that was revealed when she found out Markle was going to be a princess.
“She was just saying ‘My little Flower! How can this be true? Unbelievable,” Joseph Johnson, Markle’s uncle, told The Daily Mail earlier in the month. “She said: ‘My Flower’s going to be a Princess, wooh-wooh-wooh!’”
Is it possible we could see a Royal baby named after a plant? Will it be the first Royal to have a post-modern name? We’ll just have to wait and see.
