Royal names are often all about tradition but even princes and
princesses can’t resist trying to match their choice to the festive
season when babies arrive at Christmas. And one very unusual middle
name, shared by two very famous royal women, is an unusual twist on
Christmas theme and might be just the answer if you’re looking for
inspiration for a festive season baby.
The royals in question are
Princess Alexandra, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II, who was
born on Christmas Day and Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester who
is the longest lived member of the House of Windsor.
The name in
question is ‘Christabel’. It’s still quite rarely used but you can
see why it’s been picked for festive season babies as it’s got a
real Christmas feel about it.
The first Windsor to bear it was Princess Alice who actually
brought the name into the royal fold through marriage. She was born
Lady Alice Montagu Douglas Scott and became royal when she married
Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, the third son of King George V
and Queen Mary.
Gloucester brought an unusual middle name into the Royal Family
(Hay Wrightson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)
She was born on Christmas Day 1901 at Montagu House in London
and was christened Alice Christabel with her parents choosing her
middle name because of the date of her birth.
Alice married Prince Henry in 1935 in the Private Chapel at
Buckingham Palace and she set her own wedding day rules by marrying
in a pink dress. She quickly became a popular member of the Royal
Family and clearly made an impression on her new relatives. For
just a year later, her brother and sister in law used one of her
names for their own Christmas Day baby.
Christmas Day baby with an unusual middle name to show for it
(ROTA / i-Images)
Prince Henry’s younger brother, Prince George, had married
Princess Marina of Greece in 1934 and their son, Edward, was born
in October 1935. Their second baby was born on Christmas Day 1936,
just two weeks after the Abdication of George and Henry’s brother,
King Edward VIII, and the accession of another sibling as King
George VI. It was a difficult time for the Windsors and the arrival
of George and Marina’s baby was highly anticipated as a moment of
joy in the midst of a crisis that had rocked the throne.
George and Marina’s Christmas Day baby was a little girl and
they named her Alexandra Helen Elizabeth Olga Christabel, with her
last name a nod to both her new aunt, Alice, and her arrival date,
Christmas Day.
The name means combines Christ with ‘belle’, meaning beautiful,
and became well known in the 1910s and 1920s through Christabel
Pankhurst who was one of the leading suffragettes campaigning to
get all women the vote. Interestingly, Princess Alexandra’s
grandfather, King George V, had made Christabel Pankhurst a Dame in
his final New Year’s Honours list, published as 1936 got under way.
He died in January 1936, eleven months before his third
granddaughter was born.
The name Christabel hasn’t made it into more modern generations
of the Royal Family and it remains one of the lesser used names at
the moment. It’s never been in the Top 100 in the UK or the US and
remains a rare but distinctive choice for parents. It has shown
some signs of a revival and usually comes into its most popular
wave around Christmas. And it provides an unusual way of marking
the festive season for babies, royal and otherwise.
