Royal baby name odds: the runners, the riders - and the rank outsiders
It’s the question everyone asks when you’re expecting: have you chosen a name yet? Typically, the parents-to-be will respond by exchanging a sly smile and vouchsafe only that yes, they have “a few ideas”. If you’ve got an inconvenient family moniker that needs including somewhere, you might relegate it to the status of middle name and save for the first name something dazzling that encapsulates how you want the world to see you. (Yes, never mind the baby - the act of choosing a name is all about the parents.)
Not so if you’re second in line to the throne, or the wife of someone who is. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge pick a name for their forthcoming third child, it is likely to be one that carries the weight of history with it; something meaningful; something with precedent. So while Ethan, Logan and Jaxon were all popular last year, they are unlikely to be bestowed upon the younger sibling of Prince George and Princess Charlotte. Nor, for that matter, are Lola, Harper or Zoe, all popular choices for girls in 2017. (If there’s a lesser known King Jaxon or Queen Zoe lurking in the lineage of the British Royal family, I stand corrected, of course.)
So what, then, are the runners and riders for the name of the latest Royal baby, expected to be with us any week now - and whose sex remains officially unknown? We took a look at the odds so that you didn’t have to:
Mary
According to the bookmaker William Hill, the odds of us getting a Mary are 3/1. This would make sense from a Royal point of view, as a form of remembrance of regal Marys past. It would make less sense when judging the name on its own merits, for rare are the baby Marys of today. The name tends to be the preserve, rather, of women in their 30s and upwards. Usually upwards.
Still, if it is to be a Mary, she will be in good company. The Queen’s grandmother was a Queen Mary, the wife of George V and mother of Edward VIII and George VI. She lived to the grand old age of 85, dying in 1953 after an illness.
Not to be overlooked in the history of Royal Marys is also Mary Queen of Scots, though things ended less well for her when she was executed in 1587 at the age of 44 on the orders of Elizabeth I.
Alice
According to the bookmaker Ladbrokes, there’s a 5/1 chance of an Alice. But then, Alice was also in the running before Charlotte had arrived and, well, we know what happened then. Still, just because it didn’t win the day last time, that doesn’t mean Alice won’t get a look-in this time. If William and Kate believe in omens, this would be the girl’s name to opt for: Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester, lived to the age of 102, making her the oldest ever Royal when she died in 2004. This Alice was the Queen’s aunt, and in 1935, the then Princess Elizabeth was a bridesmaid when she married Henry, Duke of Gloucester. Queen Victoria also gave birth to an Alice some years earlier, in 1843.
Victoria
Has someone worked out that Kate is having a girl? The bookies’ odds certainly suggest so, with the shortest three odds all on girls’ names. Victoria comes in at 8/1, its most obvious precedent being Queen Victoria. If William and Kate want their child to have a name associated with fertility (as well as Britain’s great age of industrial expansion and empire), this would be a strong contender, since the monarch who reigned from 1837 to 1901 had nine children with her husband Prince Albert.
Elizabeth
Should William wished to curry favour with his grandmother, the Queen, he might well choose to name a daughter after her. At least, so William Hill seem to think, offering odds of 12/1 on this outcome.
Albert, Arthur or Frederick
In the seemingly less likely event of a boy, the shortest odds are on Albert, Arthur and Frederick. All at 14/1 with William Hill, these traditional boys’ names have all made a comeback in recent years, as well as all having some Royal form. In terms of previous examples, the most notable is Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert (1819-1861), one of whose children was a Prince Arthur. Frederick, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son of King George II and heir apparent to the throne but he died aged 44 in 1751 after being hit by a cricket ball. Given that he was disliked by his parents, his name may not be an obvious choice.
Philip, James
If the absence of any of the above, there’s thought to be a reasonable chance (odds 16/1) that a second young prince in the family could be named after his great-grandfather, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, or else a King James, of which there are a couple to choose from.
