Monday, May 04, 2015

Welcome to the World Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge!!!

Well, we officially have a name for the princess the world is about to watch grow-up.  Charlotte Elizabeth Diana (Mountbatten-Windsor, if we're getting technical) officially got her name today, and I figured in honor of that we should review five facts you might not have known about her name:

1. It's not just about the Royals

While everyone was quick to point out that Elizabeth is the name of the Queen, Charlotte is the feminine version of Charles (William's father), and Diana is of course the name of William's mother, there's some Middleton in there too.  It's worth mentioning that Elizabeth is the middle name of both Kate Middleton as well as her mother Carole, while Charlotte is the middle name of Kate's sister Pippa, whom she is extremely close with and who is a frontrunner to be a godparent (the next big royal headline).

2. The Diana Thing Should Have Been Expected

It's actually worth noting that first-born daughters of royals are quite frequently named after their mothers in some way.  Queen Elizabeth II sported the same first-name as her mother, while her daughter Princess Anne has the middle name Elizabeth.  King George V named his eldest daughter Mary after her mother, also Mary.  In fact, the past six monarchs who had a daughter named at least one of them after her mother, either by using the same first name or using the mother's name as a middle name.  Weirdly enough, the last time someone didn't was when King George IV (who famously hated his wife Queen Caroline, who was wildly popular while he was wildly not-so) had a daughter named Princess Charlotte.

3. The Elizabeth Thing Should Have Been Expected As Well

Every blood-member woman in the royal family, unless they have a sister who beat them to it, has the middle name of Elizabeth except the Queen, who of course has the first name Elizabeth.  This includes the Princess Royal (Princess Anne), Princess Alexandra, Princess Beatrice of York, Lady Louise Windsor, Zara Phillips, and Lady Sarah Chatto (some of these are "collateral" members of the Royal Family, but you get my point).  In fact there is no female descendant of King George VI who doesn't have the middle name of Elizabeth or a sister with the middle name except for Mia Tindall, the daughter of Zara Phillips.

4. The Name Charlotte Has Been a Bit of a Curse on the Royal Family

Princess Charlotte has twice been the name of the direct heir to the throne of England.  Once from 1796-1817, when Princess Charlotte of Wales, the daughter of the then Prince of Wales (later King George IV) before Princess Charlotte died in childbirth (in a moment that was wildly mourned by the people who adored in a similar fashion to a future Princess of Wales) and then again in 1819, when the heir presumptive to the throne Princess Charlotte died just hours after she was born.  Though Queen Victoria did have a granddaughter named Princess Charlotte, this will be the first time since those ill-fated princesses that a future monarch's daughter will sport these names.

5. If They Stop Here...

While a boy and a girl is the ideal for so many people, it hasn't been the ideal for the monarchs of England.  Assuming that Will and Kate stop here and that Will becomes king, the last time a Monarch of England had just a boy and a girl was King George I of Great Britain who reigned from 1714-1727. His son, like William's, was also named George and his daughter (Sophia Dorothea) eventually became Queen of Prussia.

Those are just a few facts-if you have any more trivia tidbits, share them in the comments!

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