UK: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child

Just before the name of Prince Gabriel of Sweden was announced in the Council of State at Stockholm Palace today, the British Royal Court at Kensington Palace informed that Catherine, the wife of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, was pregnant again:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are expecting their third child

Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their third child.

The Queen and members of both families are delighted with the news.

As with her previous two pregnancies, The Duchess is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Her Royal Highness will no longer carry out her planned engagement at the Hornsey Road Children's Centre in London today. The Duchess is being cared for at Kensington Palace.

As far as I know no information has been revealed about the due date, but obviously the duchess is less than 12 weeks pregnant, so the baby will be born some time in the spring of 2018.

The ducal couple's first child, Prince George, was born in 2013, while the second child, Princess Charlotte, arrived in 2015.

Postscript 19 October 2017: Kensington Palace released the following statement via its Twitter account on 17 October 2017: «The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to confirm they are expecting a baby in April 2018.»

Updated on Thursday 19 October 2017 at 10 p.m. (postscript added).

UK: HRH Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana of Cambridge

The news that the newborn daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have been named Charlotte Elizabeth Diana (and to be known as HRH Princess Charlotte of Cambridge) seems to have been received well.

The name Charlotte has deep roots in British royal history, with Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), wife of King George III (1738-1820), and Princess Charlotte (1796-1817), who in 1816 married Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (who in 1831 became King of the Belgians), as two of many examples. Many has also pointed out that Charlotte is the feminine form of Charles, so even if one cannot know for certain the motivation behind the chosen names, it is easy to conclude that the baby has been named after her grandfather the Prince of Wales. In addition, the mother of the Duchess of Cambridge has the name Carole, which is one of several variations of Charlotte. And finally, the duchess' sister is named Philippa Charlotte.

The second name Elizabeth is also rather obvious, as the baby's great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II wears that name. Not to mention the baby's great-great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, née Bowes-Lyon (1900-2002). As mentioned in my previous article, the Duchess of Cambridge's mother has Elizabeth as her second given name. And finally Diana, named after the late Diana, Princess of Wales (1961-1997), mother of the Duke of Cambridge.

On Buckingham Palace's official Facebook page The British Monarchy, one could today read that "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have formally registered the birth of Princess Charlotte. The Duke of Cambridge signed the birth register at Kensington Palace this afternoon, witnessed by a Registrar from Westminster Register Office."