But my colleague’s comment took me back to the days after my baby was born. After an unexpectedly early labour my husband sent both sets of parents a picture of the exhausted but glowing new mum and her gorgeous bundle of joy. “What’s her name?” was the first response.
Although we had decided on our baby’s name almost as soon as we left the 20 week gender-reveal scan, we hadn’t revealed it to family and friends in advance. First of all, what if we changed our mind at the last second? Secondly, if someone were to turn their nose up at the name, it would be forever tainted, no matter how much we loved it. Better to present it as a fait acompli.
We had a girl, but if we had had a boy we would have waited to announce the name anyway, eight days, in accordance with Jewish custom - once he had had his bris.
Then of course there is the legacy issue. It’s hard enough working out which dead relative common folk like us are going to name our children after (happily with middle names and Hebrew names thrown into the mix we manged to honour most departed grandparents). The name that Kate and William choose for their son will weigh heavily on not only them but the whole Royal family, and the nation. I mean yesterday William ‘joked’ they could name the new prince Alexander. What a wild-card name!
Or what about looking to the bible? The Royals go in for old-fashioned, classic names and biblical names are making a comeback. Noah was the number three baby name for boys in 2017. Wouldn’t a Prince Noah be lovely? Or how about Prince Elijah, the number nine top boys' name?
The Duke and Duchess have now entered their third day of silence. They waited two days to announce George and Charlotte’s names but this is their third child. Possibly their last. I can imagine, as Kate sat in the Lindo Wing having her hair and makeup done for the photo call, the happy couple having a conversation a bit like this:
William: Kate darling, shall we break with tradition and announce his name at the same time as we show him off to the world?
Kate: Wills, maybe this time we can wait just a little bit longer?
W: But darling, everyone’s waiting. The bookies are on shpilkes; the nation needs to know.
K: Yes but the bookies and the nation haven’t just given birth. I’m doing this photo call. I put on a pair of tights! Can’t we just hole up for a week, just the five of us and bask in the private joy of our new baby?
So maybe we’ll be waiting a bit longer to find out the name of the new prince. Maybe.
