Princess Alice of Battenberg (1885-1969), mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
My latest interview on the history of royal baby names, “Alice’ and ‘Arthur’ lead the pack as Royal baby name game heats up at U.K. bookmakers” is in the National Post. There is widespread speculation that the royal baby will be a girl. Both of the names favoured by the British bookmakers, Alice and Charlotte have royal antecedents. Queen Victoria’s second daughter was Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt and her great-granddaughter was Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Prince Philip. One of Queen Victoria’s granddaughters, Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was the consort of the Governor General of Canada during the Second World War.
Charlotte was a popular royal name in Georgian England as it was the name of George III’s queen, Charlotte of Mecklenberg, her daughter, Princess Charlotte of Württemberg and her ill fated granddaughter, Princess Charlotte of Wales, who died in childbirth in 1817, giving birth to a stillborn son. Princess Charlotte of Wales was second-in-line to the throne at the time of her death and her pregnancy was the first instance of bookmakers taking bets on whether a royal baby would be a boy or a girl.