News

Actions

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge announce third child’s name

Posted at 6:24 AM, Apr 27, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-27 06:24:03-04

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have named their third child Louis Arthur Charles, a choice that confounded expectations.

Prince Louis (pronounced Loo-ee) is fifth in line to the British throne, after grandfather Prince Charles, father Prince William and his two older siblings.

“The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son Louis Arthur Charles,” Kensington Palace said in a statement. “The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge.

Louis does not have a strong British royal pedigree — it is more commonly associated with kings of France. But it was the name of the Earl of Mountbatten, the uncle of Queen Elizabeth’s husband, the Duke of Edinburgh.

Mountbatten was the last Viceroy of India, the head of the British colonial administration in India. He was killed by a bomb placed in his fishing boat by the Irish Republican Army in 1979.

The newest arrival to the royal family was born on Monday and weighed eight pounds and seven ounces (3.8 kilograms).

He is a younger brother to Prince George, 4, and Princess Charlotte, 2, and is Queen Elizabeth II’s sixth great-grandchild.

His birth was also a significant moment for Charlotte, the first princess who will not be overtaken in the line of succession by her younger brother.

Before the 2013 Succession to the Crown Act, the newborn prince would have jumped above his older sister in the line for the throne.

But the act means that a female’s claim to the royal throne can no longer be diminished by a younger brother.