10 Names we would have chosen for the royal baby

Choosing the right name is everything. Especially for the 3rd in line to the throne.

Everyone talks about how Will and Kate keep breaking with tradition. They planned their own royal wedding details – wow! They shop for their own groceries – shocking!! It’s clear the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are keen on parting with the expected. And we don’t mind that one bit.

So why couldn’t they part with the usual list of royal baby names, too?

Gamblers placed bets on names like George, Henry and Louis, all in honor of past kings (funny enough, they went with George Alexander Louis, 2 out of 3!). But the British monarchy also conjures up memories of brutal wars and classicism. Maybe it would have been a better idea to give the little royal tyke a name associated with some of the brilliant science and engineering minds of yesterday and today?

Here is a different kind of list of baby names for everyone’s favorite royals that we would have chosen from.

Ilona’s 5 names

1. Einstein – (Not Prince Albert, because that one would be more in line with the norm.) I’m no engineer, and even I had a poster of Albert Einstein hanging on the wall in my college dorm room. It would be quite prestigious naming someone after the person who had just a few “accomplishments” under his belt, like, for example, winning the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, developing the general theory of relativity and, oh, just establishing the “world’s most famous equation” (E = mc2).

2. Nikola – Ask any electrical engineer, check the lists containing the most important and significant engineers of all time, and time and time again you will hear his name, before you even hear the name Edison. His inventions like fluorescent lighting and the development of the AC-current generation system make him arguably one of the greatest engineers of all time. And Prince Nikola has an exotic ring to it, don’t you think?

3. Sheldon – Yes, as in Cooper. Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper, to be exact. Sure, he’s a fictional character. But he’s also a physics prodigy who graduated from college at age 14, and received his Ph.D. at the ripe old age of 16 (16!). And he is currently one of the most well-known, and most beloved television characters in the world.

4. Archimedes – Everyone loves a good throwback, and this one goes back to ancient Greece. All at once he was mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor and astronomer.

5. Leonardo – People tend to equate da Vinci with his famous paintings “The Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper”, but he was also a brilliant engineer and mathematician who conceptualized the helicopter, a tank, a calculator and the theory of plate tectonics. Not too shabby!

Patrick’s 5 names

1. Angus – If you can save the world (over and over again) equipped with a Swiss army knife and your ingenuity alone, you qualify as an engineer (at least in my book). Astonishingly though, MacGyver’s first name was only revealed in the third season. It’s Angus. Very British (Scottish to be precise). And very fitting.

2. Herbert – A lot of famous people were named Herbert. Perhaps the most famous being Herbert Hoover, the 31st US President. Before he became president, he was a highly successful engineer (also dubbed ‘The Great Engineer’). Technically, the name Herbert is of German origin. But then again, technically so is the House of Windsor.

3. Apple – Ever since Gwyneth Paltrow named her baby Apple the name was officially no longer only a surname. And although it’s been used for girls only (to my knowledge), and His Royal Highness the Prince of Cambridge obviously is a boy, I still believe this would be a perfect, yet subtle, homage to Sir Isaac Newton.

4. Moss – If you’re British and an engineer, you should probably be familiar with Moss, the nerdy star of the award-winning British sitcom ‘The IT Crowd’. In my view, the name is flawless: it’s short, it’s sweet and it’s very British.

5. Rowan – I’m sure you all know who I’m thinking of. That’s right: Mr. Atkinson (aka Mr. Bean). He may be a famous comedian, but he also has a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. The name itself is Gaelic (British) and means ‘little redhead’… what more do you want?

What do you think Will and Kate should have named their bundle of joy?