HARRY and Meghan’s decision to name their daughter after the Queen divided columnists, with it seen as contrived and presumptuous but also as a touching family tribute.
The Daily Mail
Sarah Vine said she could see the attraction of Lilibet as a name.
“It conjures up images of a young Princess Elizabeth, of grainy black and white pictures of granny as a bonneted toddler, and of intimate family memories,” she said. “But it is perhaps because Lilibet is such a very rare and special name that no other royal children have thought to use it. Even if they had wanted to, they might well have felt – out of respect for Her Majesty – that it was overstepping an invisible line, presuming rather too much.”
Not the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, though, she said.
“While Harry and Meghan may have had the absolute best intentions in naming their new arrival Lilibet, in the light of their recent uncaring attacks on the Queen part of me worries that it feels like a rather shameless, attention-grabbing attempt to boost their royal brand – a brand on which their future earnings and bankability very much depend.”
The Daily Express
Paul Baldwin said said the couple had named their new baby ‘in tribute to women who have massively shaped their lives’.
“Odd then the new bundle of joy isn’t called Oprah,” he said. “The best you can say of this hideously contrived, mawkish, cynical and jaw-droppingly presumptuous moniker is that at least the little ‘un won’t go unnoticed.”
He said it was hard to figure out if the parents were cynical media players or just dense - or a subtle combination of the two.
“Lilibet is not their story to own - it’s the Queen’s,” he said. “Yet Harry and Meghan never seem to knowingly let other people’s feelings be any guide to how they should live their lives - and so young Lilibet now faces a life of media scrutiny.”
The Independent
Victoria Richards said the decision to name the new baby after the Queen had been both praised and mocked.
“Family ties may be distinctly fractured at the moment; but this is why the choice of Lilibet is so important,” she said. “Because from now on this little girl will have an unbreakable, rare and special bond with the Queen.”
She said her daughter was named after her great grandmother and kissed her photograph every night.
“And whether it’s genes, or something rarer and more mystical that just happens when you are named in tribute to someone else; it has always felt like we gave her good standing, naming her after someone so inspiring,” she said. “To hell with the nay-sayers. Lilibet and the Queen will find their own, private, special way – and nobody will be able to do a thing about it. Which, when it comes to family, is exactly the way it should be.”
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