Google – AFP, Danny Kemp (AFP), 24 July 2013
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Will and
Kate show their new-born baby boy to the world's media on
July 23, 2013
(Pool/AFP/File, John Stillwell)
|
LONDON —
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.
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George
Alexander Louis sits in a car
seat on July 23, 2013 (AFP, Carl Court)
|
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.
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A news
stand displays the latest news
on the royal baby in central London,
on July 24,
2013 (AFP, Will Oliver)
|
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.
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