With the birth of the royal baby now only weeks away, many people hope the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's first child will be a baby girl called Diana. In this week's issue of HELLO! magazine, readers can see the results of an exclusive poll we conducted that saw thousands of royal fans voting on the baby's name.
The results show that you overwhelmingly favour naming the baby in honour of Prince Harry's mother Diana, Princess of Wales, with Diana scoring 29 per cent of the votes in the girls' category. On the other hand, if baby Sussex is a boy, HELLO! readers hope he will be christened James.
© Photo: Getty ImagesHELLO! readers are hoping the baby will be named after Princess Diana
The second most popular girls' name was Grace, a name that echoes another American actress who became a royal, Grace Kelly, the wife of Prince Rainier of Monaco. Harry's cousin Zara Tindall also named her first child Mia Grace. In third place was Alexandra, the Queen's second name, followed by Victoria and Alice.
For boys, following James in second place is Philip and then Arthur, which has particularly strong royal connotations. Arthur is the middle name of Prince Charles, Prince William and Prince Louis. Albert and Henry follow as the next most popular names.
Pick up this week's issue of HELLO! magazine to see the full results.
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Bookmakers have previously told HELLO! they have been forced to slash the odds on the baby being a girl after a flurry of big-money bets led them to believe someone in the know had let the news slip. "We've had a four-figure bet on the baby being a girl, which is a really big bet for what we call a 'novelty market'," Betfair spokeswoman Katie Baylis told us. "It was placed by a customer in the London area."
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If baby Sussex, who Meghan says is due "late April, early May," does turn out to be a girl, the choice of the name Diana would be particularly poignant and would further link the Duchess to the mother-in-law she wishes she'd met. Speaking after the announcement of her engagement to Harry, Meghan said: "Obviously, not being able to meet his mom it is so important to me, to know that she is a part of this with us."
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