Queen Elizabeth II ‘s eleventh great- grandchild, Prince Harry ‘s second daughter , Lilibet Diana Mountbatten-Windsor, was born on Friday, June 4 at 11:40 a.m. at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California, United States; she weighing 7 pounds 11 ounces (3.5 kilos). Lilibet is the first of the late monarch’s great-grandchildren to be born outside the UK, following the royal departure of her parents.
In addition to paying homage to Queen Elizabeth, Lilibet, whom the couple will call “Lili,” has a poignant middle name in honor of Prince Harry’s late mother, Princess Diana. The name Lili also serves as a loving nod to Meghan’s mother, Doria Ragland, who gave Meghan the childhood nickname “Flower.”
When the news broke, sources at Buckingham Palace told BBC London that Prince Harry did not consult his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, for permission to use his private family nickname for his daughter. The source was quoted in a report on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today program that he was “never asked” about the couple’s desire to use the name.
But a spokesperson for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex denied the source’s claim at the time, telling People magazine in a statement: “The Duke spoke to his family prior to the announcement, in fact his grandmother was the first family member she named. During that conversation, she shared her hope to name her daughter Lilibet after her. If she hadn’t supported them, they wouldn’t have used the name.” The name Lilibet was lovingly used by Queen Elizabeth’s father, King George VI, who once said of his two daughters: “Lilibet is my pride. Margaret is my joy.”
It was an affectionate name used by other members of the family, most notably her late husband Prince Philip, and her older cousins such as Princess Alexandra are believed to still use the name. When Prince Harry and Meghan announced the happy news of their daughter’s arrival, they explained the naming decision in a statement. Queen Elizabeth’s eleventh great-granddaughter had a very important meeting that will be in the books after her birth: an introduction to her namesake, the Queen, via video call.
However, reports surfaced that the royal family was “baffled” over what Meghan Markle and Prince Harry decided to name their daughter. Speaking of the Royal Family’s reaction to the decision, author Gyles Brandreth writes: “Others in the family found the choice ‘perplexing’ and ‘quite presumptuous’, given that ‘Lilibet’ as a name had always been intimately and exclusively of the Queen Elizabeth. Later, the queen said: ‘I heard they are calling her ‘Lili’, that she is very pretty and looks perfect.'”
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