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What will royal baby #3 be named? Think Alice or Arthur, not Arya

Their third royal baby should arrive in early April.
Princess Charlotte and Prince George on Buckingham Palace's balcony on June 17, 2017. (Photo: Chris Jackson, Getty Images)

Princess Alice or Prince Arthur? Those names have a suitably regal ring to them, don't they?

Here we go again with the usual speculation about what names Prince William and Duchess Kate will bestow on their third Baby Cambridge once he or she arrives in early April.

Judging from their recent choices — Prince George Alexander Louis, 4, and Princess Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, 2 — plus royal traditions, it makes sense that the top names for a princess include Alice, Amelia, Caroline, Victoria or Alexandra, and Arthur, James, Frederick, Thomas or Alfred for a prince.

Princess Arya? Don't bet on it. Trendy pop-culture names — say, those that populate Game of Thrones — will not be on Will and Kate's list despite the show's influence on naming trends among non-royals, such as the seven-fold jump in baby British girls named Arya between 2010 and 2016.

"By nature, William and Kate are each very traditionalist individuals and put together they're an incredibly traditionalist couple: If either was removed from the royal sphere, you would still see traditional names from this duo," says Victoria Arbiter, the CNN royal commentator who spent some of her early years at Kensington Palace as the daughter of a royal press spokesman.

Still, it's a good thing royal babies typically carry multiple names, typically three for this generation; otherwise, the dilemma of what to name the new prince or princess would be a royal hassle of balancing tradition, family obligations and personal taste.

Speaking of betting, the list of most likely names for Cambridge Baby #3 is based in part on the bets of British punters, who rushed to their bookies back in September when Kensington Palace announced that Kate, 36, was pregnant and suffering from the same acute morning sickness that made her ill in the early stages of her two previous pregnancies.

"The bookies are clearly favoring a name from the 18th and 19th centuries, which follows the naming of the couple's first two children," says Shawn Schulze, a spokesman for Names.org, an online names site. "Our predictions for the royal baby name are Caroline or Amelia for a girl and Nathaniel or Thomas for a boy, Thomas being the only name of our four predictions that was in (our list) of the 100 most popular names."

Meanwhile, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge might be taking advice from granny Queen Elizabeth II and perusing the royal family tree, which is ancient and laden with suitable royal names. "It's a staggering number of names to choose from — Queen Victoria had nine children! — and some have stronger connotations than others," Arbiter says.

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