Of the 11 great grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth, all of them seem to have some name connection to a parent, grand- or great grandparent - Louis, George (Louis), Anne, Charlotte (Charles), Diana Elizabeth…
That seems totally normal to me. Most kids I know had a parent or grandparent name for a middle name, even if it was Herbert or Gladys. My kids each have a grandparent or great aunt’s name, my sister, cousin, niece, another cousin all have Catherine or Kathleen as a name…
Hey, maybe the middle name Diana can be like George Foreman naming all his sons George Foreman! “You get a Diana! You get a Diana!”
The point being that the queen would likely never approve Archie/Lilibet/Zara as names if there were a chance they would succeed the throne. See King Ralph
The next in line can always take another name to be King George or Queen Mary rather than Queen Lili or even Queen Diana. Princess Margaret Rose was 4th in line when named and no one ever thought she’d be Queen (and that proved to be right) but she was 2nd in line for her young life.
Queen Lili sounds awesome. 
(Ok, as the main character for a book series with 4-8 readership, but still, would be an awesome name).
Or we can get Robert Lopez or Lin-Manuel Miranda to write some songs and we can have a Disney movie. 
Well, the Palace courtiers are at it again. Apparently, anonymous senior Palace officials told the BBC that Meghan and Harry never asked the Queen’s permission to use the name Lilibet. Harry denies this.
I don’t think it matters what the exact truth is surrounding the name; the point is, this is a family matter and if the Queen is in any way hurt or angry, airing that dirty laundry in public is not helpful to her or to the Monarchy, and in fact only supports Harry and Meghan’s narrative that the Palace (the institution, not the family) is cruel, out of touch, and out to get them.
(For the record, I personally find it highly unlikely that Harry and Meghan would have named their daughter Lilbet without the Queen’s support.)
It’s a family matter. So no reason that courtiers would be privy to the details. And I take anonymous sources with a huge grain if salt.
Right, but unless the BBC journalist is lying about speaking with palace officials, one or more courtiers did want to put out for public consumption the idea that Harry never asked the Queen’s permission. I absolutely agree the claim is probably false, or at least a highly misleading interpretation of a nugget of truth. For example, how about this as a phone conversation:
Harry: Hi, Granny. Meg & I would like to name our daughter Lilibet, though we’d call her Lili . . .
Queen: Oh, how lovely, I’m touched, I think that’s a wonderful name.
Harry: So glad you approve. Thank you, Granny.
But, wait, horrors, he never asked her permission!
Oh, I am sure that BBC Is not making it up. And palace officials cannot speak on the record unless authorized. The courtiers simply do not know what they do not know. I imagine the phone / video call went precisely as you described. The queen has a mobile phone, so the days of having to go through the palace switchboard are long over.
Queen Victoria was very fond of having her grandchildren named Victoria and Albert.
These two really need to learn to pick their battles.
"The couple were prodded into making an official intervention after BBC Radio 4’s flagship breakfast news program said Wednesday on its 6:30 a.m. bulletin that the BBC had been told Harry and Meghan “did not consult the queen about using her childhood nickname Lilibet for their baby… a Buckingham Palace source says she was never asked about it.”
Who cares? They asked, they didn’t ask…what difference does it make? The Queen knows the answer and her opinion is the only one that matters.
It’s unfortunate that the birth is being clouded by these types of things. It sounds like maybe they called the Queen after the birth, not before, and told her they would like to name her Lilibet. If that’s the case, what else could the Queen say at that point but that it was fine with her , especially if caught off guard with this info? I may of course be totally off base with all this and the timeline. But, just sad that these kinds of things keep going on, to the point of lawyers getting involved!
No kidding. They can’t win with this crowd.
And neither apparently can the royal family with some here. It’s not about winning, it’s about balance and getting family relationships back on track. Frankly, if a family member of mine went on Oprah and said the hurtful things that were said, I’m not sure it might not take longer for me to be as gracious as some of their family has been. Families are complicated, that’s for sure.
It’s called an idiom.
And IMO they were showing respect to the queen (trying to get relationships back on track) by naming the child Lilibet. But apparently that was the wrong thing to do also.
Hence, why I commented that no matter what they do, they’ll be criticized on this thread.
It may have been the wrong thing to do, depending on how the Queen really felt about the use of her pet name as a first name, which is very personal . We may never know.
I admit I’m still baffled about the Oprah interview and the timing. The Queen was losing her husband, it was a stressful time, yet they went on Oprah and opened this all up, while promoting their brand. It just showed a lack of sensitivity and compassion to me personally. But, I know there are others here that don’t feel the same .
We may will never know
I don’t think there is anything wrong about the name, about asking the Queen or not asking the Queen, about doing exactly what they wanted to do when picking a name.
But they can’t win, so why do they keep trying to win? Just shut up about it. They said they asked and the ‘unnamed source’ said they didn’t, and the press wants to nitpick every detail. Just don’t respond. Don’t send a threatening email, don’t ask the palace to respond. Just move on and enjoy your child.
The only person that matters is the Queen, and she’s not picking up info from the Daily Mail or other papers. Don’t respond. It is a no win for Harry and Meghan, but maybe they don’t need to win with the Queen. She might be please as punch or she might be angry, but we’ll never know.
I don’t have an issue with H&M wanting out of the UK and out of The Firm, but I do have an issue with them giving all the quotes and interviews about how they’ve been wronged. They want to be anti-press, except when they want press coverage.
William and Kate seem to handle the press pretty well. They pose for some pictures, they release pics of their kids, they don’t respond to the bad press or the stupid things the press picks on about Kate not wearing pantyhose or that she didn’t return to public events soon enough after having babies. I like their attitude of “tough” and just not responding.
I’m going to go against the grain here with saying that I think a living person with such a unique, personal name as Lilibet should be given a heads up and given time to think about it if there is any hesitation at all . Elizabeth, Diana, Charles , etc. have all been used in the family and are mainstream names. Lilibet is not .