Speculation over what name Meghan and Harry will choose filled today’s papers

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

News of the royal baby filled the front pages of several papers on Tuesday – and many, many pages beyond.

While there were no new pictures of the Duchess of Sussex or the baby, the Mail, Mirror and Express heroically still managed to devote 23, 11 and 11 pages of coverage respectively to the birth of the seventh in line to the throne.

“It’s a boy!” yelled the Express and the Times. “Boy I’m happy” said the Metro. The Daily Mirror led with words from Prince Harry: “I’m so incredibly proud of my wife. This little thing is absolutely to die for …” a quote repeated on the front of the Telegraph, which dedicated its entire front page to the news. The Sun focused on the fact that the baby was born at daybreak, which gives them the chance to pun on the news: “Sonrise at Windsor”.

Royal baby: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, gives birth to boy Read more

Inside the papers, pages were filled with “royal photo albums”, showing Prince Harry, Prince William and Meghan as children, horoscopes for the new parents, speculating on how their star signs might affect their parenting styles, and bookmakers’ predictions on names.

Play Video 1:34 Prince Harry after Meghan gives birth to boy: ‘Absolutely over the moon’ – video

A gem of the speculative genre was an article on the Daily Express website headlined: “Meghan Markle and Prince Harry to choose UNUSUAL name for baby that UNIFIES the US and UK”.

Published online before Harry’s buoyant press conference and the Instagram postconfirming that the baby was a boy, the story quoted a “royal expert”, Victoria Arbiter, who told CBS that while she doesn’t have “an inside track on the actual name” she thought it would be a name that “works on both sides of the pond”.

Arbiter suggested Alexander – both a royal name and the name of founding father Alexander Hamilton – or Eleanor – after 12th century queen consort Eleanor of Aquitaine and Eleanor Roosevelt – as names that, in the language of the Express, unified the countries.

But the paper was asking for trouble when it tweeted out the headline, with readers having very different ideas to Arbiter about the sorts of names that brought both countries together.

“Iraq War,” tweeted one reader. Other suggestions included Beyoncé, Barack, and Cambridge Analytica.

Seth Masket (@smotus) Aluminium.

Happy (@KingstonSunhine) As I thought. They will go with Huckleberry Sylvester Winfrey Rhubarb.