Royal baby name update: Another moniker joins Alice as the bookies favourite

Mere days before the royal baby is due (or so the signs are suggesting), bookies have released their latest figures for the most popular baby names.

Leading the way is Alice – and although we already knew the moniker was a popular bet, odds have been slashed over the last month from 12/1 to 5/1 favourite.

The top pick for if the baby is a boy is a surprise new entry – Philip – which has dipped from 25/1 to 16/1 in the last week.

Frontrunner Alice is said to be a French name meaning ‘of nobility’ and ‘kind’. The name was most popular in 1865 when Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland was published.

Philip, on the other hand, is said to have Greek origins and means ‘loves horses’.

If the royal baby girl is named Alice, she’ll be the first since Princess Alice Maud Mary, the third daughter of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, born at Buckingham Palace in 1843.

Princess Alice was the Grand Duchess of Hesse and by Rhine.

If the royal baby is a boy and is named Philip, there’s no doubt it would be a nod to William’s grandfather, The Duke of Edinburgh, 96, who retired his public duties last year and recently underwent a hip replacement.

Alex Apati of Ladbrokes told the Daily Mail: ‘Punters are seemingly confident Kate will give birth to a girl as Alice is proving twice as popular as any other name in the market, but if it’s a boy it’s looking increasingly likely he’ll be named after his great grandfather.’

Barriers went up outside the Lindo Wing of St Mary’s Hospital in London yesterday signalling the start of ‘royal baby watch’.

So it won’t be long before punters are either quids in disappointed…

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