Why does Alexandra as a royal baby name sounds so familiar?

By Patricia Treble - Thursday, April 11, 2013 at 3:25 PM - 0 Comments

(AP Photo/Matt Dunham)

So after weeks of being consigned to the bargain basement of possible royal baby names, Alexandra has surged in recent days from 10:1 odds to a 2:1 favourite. (Even “Barack” makes an appearance, at 200:1, mind you.)

Well, way back in December–when the pregnancy was initially announced–everyone was plumping for Elizabeth, or possibly Diana.

Here was the list from Ladbrokes, the betting agency:

Elizabeth 8:1
Frances 10:1
John 10:1
Charles 10:1
Diana 12:1
Anne 12:1
James 12:1
George 14:1
Mary 14:1
Philip 14:1
Richard 16:1
Edward 16:1
Catherine 16:1
Sarah 16:1
Spencer 20:1
Andrew 20:1
David 20:1
Jessica 20:1
Victoria 20:1
Alexander 20:1

Note that Alexandra isn’t on the list, only the male version of Alexander was there (now relegated to 33:1). A month later Elizabeth and Diana were still the front runners.

Yet, within hours of the news that Kate was in hospital with acute morning sickness, I’d created a list of my favourite names for the future monarch—five for a girl and the same number for a boy, along with my reasonings. The first choice? Alexandra (Philip was my top pick for a boy).

While no one is going to know who’s right and who’s wrong until the baby is born—Kate recently said it’s due mid-July—it’s kinda nice to think the world is coming around to my way of thinking. At least in Britain’s gambling shops.

Kate wants a boy, William wants a girl

By Jessica Allen - Monday, March 18, 2013 at 10:57 AM - 0 Comments

Matt Dunham/AP

The five-month pregnant duchess of Cambridge revealed on Sunday that she’s hoping for a baby boy, the Daily Telegraph reports.

The news was revealed to 29-year-old guardsman Lee Wheeler during the duke and duchess’s visit to his regiment’s Aldershot barracks at the Irish Guards’ St Patrick’s Day parade. After Wheeler told Kate that he missed his 22-month-old son while on duty, he asked if she knew whether she was having a boy or a girl. After the duchess  replied, ‘Not yet,’  she said: ‘I’d like to have a boy and William would like a girl.’

“I asked her if she had any names yet, and she said no,” Wheeler told the Daily Telegraph, which contradicts last week’s  US Weekly cover story that reported if Will and Kate have a daughter, they will name her Elizabeth Diana Carole, in honour of  the Queen and both of their mothers.

The duchess, who wore the same green Emilia Wickstead dress coat that she wore to last year’s parade, left royal watchers and tabloids salivating just two weeks ago during a visit to Grimsby. There, she told a well wisher “Oh is this for our d…” before stopping, reported The Daily Mail. As Kate continued her rounds through the crowd, another woman asked if she had indeed said daughter. “No, we don’t know!” the duchess reportedly replied.

Looks like no one will, until July–when the royal baby is due.

Are Kate and Will having a baby girl?

By Emily Senger - Wednesday, March 6, 2013 at 8:26 AM - 0 Comments

The duchess of Cambridge visits Grimsby on March 5, 2013. (Scott Heppell/AP)

There is much speculation that Kate, duchess of Cambridge, may have inadvertently exposed the Royal baby’s sex during a public appearance Tuesday. And, if the speculation is correct, it’s a girl.

The potential slip-up that has tabloids salivating came during a visit to Grimsby, a former fishing centre that is now an area of high unemployment. As Kate accepted a teddy bear from a well-wisher she was caught on camera saying: “Oh is this for our d…” before stopping, reports The Daily Mail. As Kate continued her rounds through the crowd, another woman asked if she had, indeed, said daughter. “No, we don’t know!” the duchess reportedly replied.

The duchess is due to give birth in July and even if Will and Kate did know the sex of their baby, they wouldn’t tell, writes Telegraph reporter Gordon Rayner. “Precedent dictates that the sex of royal babies is never announced in advance,” he writes. Continue…

A daughter for Will and Kate could create a royal headache

By Colby Cosh - Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 4:00 PM - 0 Comments

Jesal Parshotam/Splash News

Is there perhaps a silent prayer sweeping stealthily across the ranks of Canada’s constitutional experts? “Please, Lord, let the duchess of Cambridge be delivered of a fine, healthy heir. And if you could see to it, let it be a boy. Or, if it’s a girl, make sure she only has younger sisters.”

When St. James’s Palace announced on Dec. 3 that the wife of HRH Prince William was great with child, the machinery of the Commonwealth was ready. The heads of government in the Queen’s various realms had, in October 2011, already agreed to a co-ordinated change in their statutes that will allow the Prince’s children to succeed in order of seniority, irrespective of sex. The necessary changes to British law, which affect acts as far back as 1351, are ready for parliamentary approval and scheduled to go through as early as possible in the new year, with the Canadian ones to follow. There is nary a whisper of dissent from any quarter. Continue…

Five royal stories guaranteed to make headlines in 2013

By Patricia Treble - Tuesday, January 1, 2013 at 7:30 AM - 0 Comments

Princess Madeleine of Sweden with her fiance Chris O'Neill (Anders Wiklund/Scanpix Sweden/AP)

There’s bound to be unexpected surprises in 2013 for the two dozen-odd royal families around the world. After all, who could have predicted that women everywhere would spend so much time analyzing Prince Harry’s derriere from his Las Vegas romp.

Here are five stories guaranteed to make headlines in 2013:

1. The bump: So much attention has already been paid on the pregnancy of Kate, duchess of Cambridge, that a purple-eyed alien from outer space could be forgiven for wondering if the newborn will one day be leader of the Earth. Kate and William will be under an intense spotlight until she delivers, expected to be in July. Every twinge, every smile or frown will be scrutinized. Poor dears.

2. The BIG wedding: Princess Madeleine of Sweden, a.k.a. the most beautiful princess in Europe, is getting married to Anglo-American financier Chris O’Neill. And that means tiaras, long gowns and lots and lots of fashionable royalty. Just feast your eyes on what happened when big sis Victoria got married in 2010.  BONUS POINTS:  Sweden will be doubly excited given it will happen in time for her father’s ruby jubilee (that’s 40 years on the throne.)

3. Prince Charles turns 65: He’s been heir to the throne for so long that he’s–take a deep breath–grown up, went to university, had a naval career, married Lady Diana Spencer, had two kids before the marriage implode in monumentally spectacular fashion, got divorced, then widowed, then spent eight years with his mistress, Camilla, before they married in 2005, and then spent another eight years together until now, his 65th birthday. It’s so long that he’s been in fashion, then out of fashion (when everyone thought he was a kooky enviro gardening artisto who hated all modernity) before coming back into fashion as the rest of the world realizes that, in this time of global warming and an out of touch elite, that a man born to his position who spends a huge amount of time trying to save the planet (without all of us having to plow a furrow) while getting young people off government aid and into jobs, might be allright.

4. William’s career change: The second in the line to the throne has a big decision to make–renew for another five-year stint with the RAF as a helicopter pilot or go into another military posting, such as the Household Calvary, that will allow him to carry out more royal duties now that his 91-year-old grandfather, Prince Philip, is having to slow down because of bad heath. William loves being a helicopter pilot, able to spend huge amounts of time out of the public eye. But he’s also a Windsor. And that means duty is encoded into his DNA. A true dilemma.

5. Runner-up weddings: Once Andrea Casiraghi’s fiancee gives birth, the second in line to the Monaco throne is supposed to marry heiress Tatiana Santo Domingo. Because of the family’s propensity for sleaze and scandal, expect most top royals to avoid the wedding like a plague. (“Oh so sorry, but that’s the weekend we always clean cobwebs in the turret rooms.”). And mere months after big brother Guillaume got married, Prince Felix of Luxembourg got engaged, giving us a second grand duchy wedding. And unlike Monaco, this will be packed with all the “right sort” of dignitaries.

The top 10 royal stories of 2012

By Patricia Treble - Monday, December 24, 2012 at 7:10 PM - 0 Comments

Andrew Winning/Reuters

1. Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, By the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith: Okay, the title is just fun. And so was the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s reign. It started on Feb. 6—though that’s not “celebrated” as it’s the day her father, King George VI, died—and went right through into December. Canada got a nice stamp, an even nicer stained glass window for Parliament Hill, 60,000 Diamond Jubilee medals, with accompanying paper personally signed by Governor General David Johnston, and a visit by Prince Charles and Camilla, duchess of Cornwall. The world got a four-day extravaganza in London. Not even the pouring rain on the Thames River pageant could drown the enthusiasm of millions. Hundreds of thousands turned out for a huge concert in front of Buckingham Palace with millions more showing up the next day for the main event—a service of thanksgiving in St. Paul’s Cathedral followed by a carriage ride through London and the traditional balcony scene back home. Only the hospitalization of Prince Philip (see also below) put a damper on events.

2. Wedding of Prince Guillaume, hereditary grand duke of Luxembourg, and Countess Stéphanie de Lannoy: Oooh, a royal wedding. Luxembourg might be tiny—population 520,000—but it more than made up for its geographic deficiencies by throwing a spectacular wedding. And that involved inviting tons of royalty who dressed up in spectacular gowns and tiaras for two days of events. (The fabulous Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor website has a complete rundown on all the fashion hits and misses.) Best of all, the bride wore a spectacular Elie Saab dress with her family tiara (to have a family tiara!)

Continue…

Royal naming rights

By Patricia Treble - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 8:40 AM - 0 Comments

MAVRIXPHOTO/KEYSTONE PRESS

The minute the pregnancy was announced, bookmakers started taking bets on what name William and Kate would choose. Since this baby will eventually carry the title of “Queen” or “King,” a few names can be immediately nixed. The traditionalist couple won’t pick anything celebrity-like, so no Peaches or Apple or Blue Ivy for the Windsors. And though Diana will likely be honoured as a secondary name if it’s a girl—Charles and William each have four given names—her public campaign to stop Charles from becoming monarch makes it unlikely she’ll get top billing. Though William adores his granny, Elizabeth is probably out for two reasons: there have already been two British Queen Elizabeths in the last century: the current monarch and her mother. Furthermore, the Belgian heirs snagged the name for their future queen. So here are some early guesses. Continue…

A Royal pregnancy: grace under pressure

By Ken MacQueen - Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments

Brilliant timing: The birth of an heir would cap a ‘terrific year’ for the royal family

The statement Monday from St. James’s Palace had all the hallmarks of a rush job: “Their royal highnesses the duke and duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that the duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby,” began the terse statement. After a nod to the happy relatives, it concluded with the meat of the matter: “The duchess was admitted this afternoon to King Edward VII Hospital in central London with Hyperemesis gravidarum. As the pregnancy is in its very early stages, her royal highness is expected to stay in hospital for several days and will require a period of rest thereafter.”

As any parent will tell you, children have minds of their own, and so it was the potential future king or queen of Britain, Canada and 14 other realms who set the agenda in a most unpleasant way. Hyperemesis gravidarum (HG), as most everyone now knows, is a severe form of nausea and vomiting, an amped-up morning sickness that must have made Kate’s weekend visit to her parents’ home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, a hellish experience. Protocol should have dictated that William’s granny, Queen Elizabeth II, would have been the first to know her third great-grandchild and heir was on the way. But even if the couple hadn’t chosen that weekend to share the news of the pregnancy, Kate’s parents, Carole and Michael Middleton, would have surmised it soon enough as their usually unflappable 30-year-old daughter made repeated dashes for the nearest bathroom. By Monday, her nausea was severe enough that a worried William was on the phone to doctors. That afternoon, he drove her into the city to King Edward VII, “London’s foremost private hospital.” He stayed with her until about 8:20 p.m. Monday, returning to the hospital Tuesday morning. Continue…

How to raise a monarch

By Michael Friscolanti - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 3:33 PM - 0 Comments

MAVRIXPHOTO/KEYSTONE PRESS

Elizabeth Alexandra Mary, as she was known back in 1936, was 10 years old when all of England heard the scandalous news. Her uncle, King Edward VIII, had abandoned the throne—ditching his royal obligations in favour of Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman he had been forbidden to marry. “I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility and to discharge my duties as I would wish to do without the help and support of the woman I love,” he told his subjects in a stunning December radio address from Windsor.

Elizabeth’s father—Edward’s stammering and thoroughly insecure little brother Albert—was suddenly the king. And Elizabeth, his beloved elder daughter, was now the heiress presumptive.

“Does that mean you’ll be queen?” her younger sister, Margaret, famously asked.

“Yes, someday,” Elizabeth answered, as crowds gathered near the family home.

“Poor you,” Margaret said. Continue…

If Will and Kate have a girl, new succession laws will be tested

By John Fraser - Tuesday, December 11, 2012 at 12:30 PM - 0 Comments

HUSSEIN ANWAR/SIPA

If Kate ever wondered after her storybook wedding what it would be like when the full force of royal expectations and demands descended upon her, she knows it now. The ordinary miracle of pregnancy shared by a happy couple anywhere is always a cause for celebration, but a first pregnancy in the direct line of succession to the Crown was always bound to bring on a media frenzy. This one also comes complete with a historic constitutional blizzard.

The news that she and Prince William, the duchess and duke of Cambridge, are expecting their first child in a little over seven months will be greeted with joy in many quarters, indifference in some and gnashing of teeth in still others. That’s normal in an egalitarian age when deference to royalty vanished a long time ago but residual and even renewed and growing affection for Queen Elizabeth II and her “heirs and successors” has surprised many observers.

But this particular pregnancy is also fraught with constitutional heavy traffic, the likes of which royal watchers have not seen in a long time. For starters, the current law of succession in all of Elizabeth II’s realms—and there are 16 of them, including the United Kingdom and Canada—says a first-born girl can be trumped by a younger brother. Continue…

Bringing up baby in the Royal fishbowl

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Sunday, December 9, 2012 at 8:20 AM - 0 Comments

John Stillwell/PA PHOTOS/KEYSTONE PRESS

Prince William’s first public engagement came just 22 hours after his birth: a brief appearance on the steps of St. Mary’s Hospital in London, swaddled in a blanket and held in the awkward clutch of his father, Charles. As the crowd cheered, reporters bellowed and cameras strobed, the jug-eared heir to the British throne dutifully displayed his own, far more telegenic successor. Then he handed the infant off to a shyly smiling Diana, steered her gently by the various photographers’ positions and opened the rear door to their chauffeur-driven station wagon as the new family prepared to speed off home.

Thirty years on, the most striking thing about the footage is the absence of a car seat, or even seat belts for that matter. But the carefully choreographed unveiling was groundbreaking for its time. William Arthur Philip Louis was the first future sovereign to be born in a hospital. His father was actually there to witness his arrival. And, as with the couple’s fairy-tale wedding 11 months before, the public and press had been invited to share the joy almost every step of the way. The news of his birth may have been declared with a traditional 41-gun salute at the Tower of London, but there were modern touches mixed in as well. William would never be a commoner, but his parents, it seemed, were determined that he might find some common ground with them. Continue…

Royal baby and the press: is the future heir fair game?

By Rosemary Westwood - Thursday, December 6, 2012 at 1:57 PM - 0 Comments

Alastair Grant/AP

As soon as the royal baby story hit the wires, up popped the “live coverage” feeds on the Guardian and Telegraph news sites.

It’s the “only story that anybody on the royal beat is going to be working on for the next nine months,” declared the Telegraph’s Gordon Rayner. He predicted “feverish” coverage of the pregnancy before pronouncing it “the most anticipated baby since Prince William himself.”

But even as reporters and camera crews huddled outside the hospital where Kate was being treated for extreme morning sickness, anxious for more news (William leaving the building was about as dramatic as it got), British MPs were busy debating a controversial plan to reel in the more zealous members of the press.

The Leveson report calls for greater scrutiny of the media through a new independent regulatory body, backed up by legislation. It stems from the Leveson inquiry, the government’s response to the British phone-hacking scandal. Prime Minister David Cameron has welcomed the idea of a low-cost body to handle libel disputes, levy fines and even demand apologies. But, wary of too much legislative meddling, he dumped the file onto the desks of Fleet Street editors. Come up with a plan, he warned them, or expect a new press law. Continue…

All bets are on for royal baby names

By Mika Rekai - Wednesday, December 5, 2012 at 3:38 PM - 0 Comments

Jamie Grill/Getty

Because the baby growing inside the duchess of Cambridge will, presumably, become Canada’s Head of State, it is the job of every Canadian citizen to celebrate the news, congratulate the happy couple (open a window, shout towards the east) and speculate wildly about the future monarch currently taking up its in utero residence.

Will it be boy or a girl? Will it have shiny hair like its mother? Will it have rosy cheeks like its father? Will there actually be two babies? The question on most people’s minds, however, is what will the baby be called? Betting agencies all over the world are handicapping the possibilities: here’s an alternative summary of baby name prospects.

GIRLS

Favourite: Elizabeth

Elizabeth is the odds-on favourite worldwide, and the choice is really a no-brainer. The Queen has carried the name very successfully for the last 86 years and her mother pulled it off for 101 years, so you can hardly accuse the couple of being “faddish” with this one. Another nice thing about the name “Elizabeth” is that it lends itself easily to nicknames, so Kate and Wills will still have a dozen choices for what to actually call the child, when they’re yelling at it to stop running in the palace, or to put down that jewel-encrusted scepter! Personally, I hope they pick “Beth”. “Beth Wales” sounds like the kind of girl you want to play detectives with at when you’re eight. “Beth Wales” is the type of girl who gets caught smoking in the washroom with you at 17. “Beth Wales” is the type of Queen you want to grab late night pizza with after you’ve had too much Champagne at a State Dinner.

Continue…

Snookie dishes pregnancy and baby advice to Kate

By Emily Senger - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 at 9:22 AM - 0 Comments

Nicole "Snookie" Polizzi attends a book signing for "Confessions of a Guidette" in New York on Oct. 25, 2011. (Charles Sykes/AP)

Jersey Shore reality television star Snookie has some advice for Kate, the duchess of Cambridge, upon hearing the news that she and Prince William are expecting their first child.

“It’s hard, but don’t stress out!” Nicole (Snooki) Polizzi told the New York Daily News. “Enjoy your pregnancy and be excited.”

Snookie, who was once known for her hard drinking and partying ways on reality television, gave birth to baby boy Lorenzo Dominic LaValle in August.

Should Kate wish to take advice from the woman known for her hair poof and affinity for leopard print, Snookie also says Kate should get a Boppy pillow for breastfeeding and she should: “Enjoy your time at home — or the castle, in her case — with the baby. Especially the first few months.”

Snookie also had congratulations for the Royal couple: “Congrats to Will and Kate. I’m sure she will be an amazing mom.”

On Tuesday, Kate remains in hospital where she was admitted Monday with severe morning sickness. She is expected to remain in hospital for several days and her public appointments have been cancelled.