For the Royal Family, names hold a lot of meaning, and with the birth of their second child, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex honoured both the late Princess Diana and the Queen herself.
Lilibet ‘Lili’ Diana Mountbatten-Windsor was born on Friday in California, with Prince Harry and Meghan announcing the birth officially on Sunday.
"On June 4th, we were blessed with the arrival of our daughter, Lili. She is more than we could have ever imagined, and we remain grateful for the love and prayers we’ve felt from across the globe," Harry and Meghan said in a statement.
"Thank you for your continued kindness and support during this very special time for our family.”
This type of announcement is in line with the couple’s desire for privacy, CTV’s Royal Commentator Richard Berthelsen told CTV News Channel on Sunday.
“They don’t want photographers around a hospital or staking out their location, so two days after the birth, once they’re back home and settled in, we get this lovely announcement,” he said. “I think it’s a happy day for everyone involved, and it’s a very interesting choice of a name.”
Lilibet is actually a nickname of Queen Elizabeth from when she was young, he said, something that only certain close family members would refer to her as.
“It’s a very intimate and personal name,” he said.
“Elizabeth was difficult for her to pronounce when she was young, and so she just could get ‘Lillibet’ out. And so that stuck within the family.”
He believes the couple would’ve had to ask the Queen before using her nickname as the first name of their child, so it’s likely that the monarch signed off on the name ahead of the birth or the announcement.
“Certainly children that are princes or princesses of the realm, it really is the sovereign who must weigh in on it, at least unofficially and behind the scenes,” Berthelsen said.
“I think it would have been a happy question to let the Queen know that were imminently about to have the child and they had sort of selected this name […] and gave her a call before they made it public.”
Another aspect of Lilibet’s name is the use of “Diana” as a middle name, a clear homage to Harry’s mother, the late Princess Diana.
Berthelsen pointed out that Prince William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, made a similar naming choice with their daughter.
“On the other side, of course not surprisingly, we see a nod to Diana, much as we saw with Princess Charlotte, who was ‘Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana’,” he said. “So both of the Queen’s great-granddaughters, in this line of the family, have both Elizabeth and Diana somewhere in their names, essentially.”
Lilibet is Harry and Meghan’s second child, following Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, who is now two years old. Lilibet is eighth in line for the throne.
There have been tensions between Harry and Meghan and the rest of the Royal Family since the couple stepped away from royal duties back in early 2020. The couple spoke up earlier this year in a revealing interview with Oprah about the racism Meghan faced, as well as how her mental health suffered, while acting as a royal.
Prince Harry and Oprah put out a project in May that featured discussions of mental health with other notable figures such as Lady Gaga and Glenn Close.
The birth of Lilibet could be an opportunity for the Royal Family to come together, Berthelsen said.
“I think as with many families, I think these life events — births, marriages, divorces, also deaths — tend to bring families together and reunite around what are the essential relationships, and the fact that they are a family, come what may,” he said. “I think this is one of these bridges that will help to rebuild within the family, and I think there’ll be happy messages going from the United Kingdom […] to California.”
On July 1, a statue will be unveiled to honour Princess Diana on what would have been her 60th birthday, and Prince Harry will be joining his brother at the event at Kensington Palace.
Given issues around quarantining and other pandemic concerns, it’s unknown whether Meghan will decide to travel with the baby or not in the next few weeks.
A trip to the U.K. comes with “an eight hour time change, not easy for young children,” Berthelsen pointed out.
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