Prince Louis: British royals William and Kate name their baby

LONDON - 28 April 2018: Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate have named their newborn son Louis Arthur Charles, a nod to both his grandfather and heir to the throne and one of his most beloved mentors.

The prince, who is fifth in line to the British throne, will be known as His Royal Highness Prince Louis of Cambridge, Kensington Palace said on Friday.

Prince Louis, the third child for William and Kate, was born at 1001 GMT on April 23 weighing 8 lbs 7oz.

Kensington Palace declined to speculate on the significance of the names though Louis is William’s fourth name as well as being that of Lord Mountbatten, to whom William’s father Prince Charles was particularly close.

Charles, the heir to the throne, once said Mountbatten was “the grandfather I never had”.

Mountbatten, who was known as “Dickie” by close friends, was the uncle of Prince Philip, 96, Queen Elizabeth’s husband and great-grandfather of the new prince. Mountbatten was killed by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) who detonated a bomb on his boat in 1979.

The birth of the new prince has provided a welcome distraction for many in Britain where Brexit and political turmoil has dominated the headlines since the 2016 shock vote to leave the European Union.

Louis joins siblings Charlotte, 2, and George, 4, in the growing royal family, and the queen, Philip, Charles, and his wife, Camilla have all expressed delighted with the birth of the monarch’s sixth great-grandchild.

“It is a great joy to have another grandchild, the only trouble is I don’t know how I am going to keep up with them,” Charles said.

The name was a surprise, with the bookies’ favorites having been Albert, Arthur, Alexander, James and Philip. The betting odds indicated just a 5 percent chance of Louis.

Such was the excitement at the arrival of a new royal baby that Blackpool Zoo named a newly born double-humped Bactrian camel calf as Louis to honor the new prince.

A zoo spokeswoman said the camel’s name was simply Louis though some were already calling the camel “Prince Louis”.