A brand new Royal

So in a moment of joyous maternal pride, the Duchess of Cambridge fluffed her lines when confronted with a proffered teddy bear. Or at least she has set the proverbial cat among the press tongues wagging, with supposition of a royal daughter.
This of course would be no mere royal daughter, for if indeed the Duchess gives birth first to a surviving girl, recent constitutional change degrees, that the child will rightly assume the throne, when her time comes. To whatever chagrin her erstwhile primogenitured brothers may say. Such is the modern time we live in.

However naming of the future queen is not much more fun, considering the conservatism (small c) demonstrated by the royals when choosing names for the offspring. We are looking at a pretty limited field.
The bookies choice must be Elizabeth, not just in honour of Grandma, but the two Es to date have proved pretty formidable characters, and every aspiring Monarch could benefit from such fortuitous a background, or is that backbone.
Victoria could prove a popular title, and the upsurge in the sound of Vicky’s, ringing out amongst the school playgrounds of England could run Mohammed a hard race for the top nomenclature. But somehow the Original Victorian age was so momentous it would be a hard act to follow, and maybe a tough soubriquet to live up to.

Mary is next in the list – but without the sidekick William, it seems too everyday to fire the imagination. And Dad William may find the joke (if he gets it) too perplexing. The earlier, headless, Scottish version, is alas, too tragic.
Then Queen Anne II is on the cards . . . but unless William sees his over coiffured Aunt as a superior role model, I doubt if her suggested relationship with his Mother, will trouble William Hill or a new wave of Queen Anne II inspired architecture.
Of course the Cambridge’s may go completely off piste and search amongst the married English Queens for inspiration . . . starting possibly with Richard the Lionheart’s fair Blanche or the seemingly never-ending list from the line of Henry’s (starting at the I’s) – Edith, going on through Eleanor (H II & III) Mary and Joanna (HIV) Catherine (HV) Margaret (HVI) an earlier Elizabeth (HVII) . . . still the favourite . . . and of course making a concerted bid with the headless outsiders, Henry VIII and his harem, made up of 3 Catherines, 2 Annes and a plain Jane.
It is too tedious to list all the Edward and George options, but nothing startling stands out.

Should they go for a little more global appreciation, the world boasts a feeble list with the Danish Margrethe and the Nederland Queen Beatrix (surely too close to the Fergie fiasco), as the only related and ruling offering.

But note, not a single Diana amongst them.
Tragic though her untimely death was, the fairytale idea of a queen with the name straight off the Bunty comic, was always rather surreal. But she would have made a beautiful Granny.