The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have this evening revealed that their son - now the third in line to the throne - will be called George.
Kensington Palace revealed the baby's full name will be George Alexander Louis. William and Kate's baby will be known as Prince George and as third in line to the throne will one day be king.
Kensington Palace said in a short statement: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their son George Alexander Louis.
'The baby will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.'
By naming their son George - which is synonymous with British kings - it looks like the couple have followed tradition. However, royal sources say the baby's names are not supposed to be symbolic but that the couple genuinely like them.
Baby Prince George's other middle name - Alexander - is one that three medieval Scottish kings have had.
William Hill said that George had been by far and away the best backed boys name with the firm and ended as the 2/1 favourite ahead of James and Louis.
William Hill spokesman Joe Crilly said: 'Yes, George has been incredibly popular with our punters in the last 24 to 48 hours but the pregnancy has lasted a lot longer than that and up until Monday the majority of the betting was for a girl .
'We are paying out a six figure sum to winning punters but the Royal Baby betting has been so popular that we have enough to get in a bottle of bubbly to wet the baby's head tonight.'
Since the baby was born on Monday William Hill has taken 3,400 bets on the name George with 25 of those being three figure punts - the biggest was a £500 wager at 2/1 on Tuesday.
Historian and royal biographer Robert Lacey said he thought the choice of George as the baby's first name would give the Queen 'great pleasure'.
'George is obviously a tribute to the Queen's father and will, I imagine, give Her Majesty great pleasure,' he said.
'But even as we say that we have to remember that her father's actual name was Albert or Bertie - he chose the name George. We may find that Prince George could decide to give himself a different name as king.
'George was a natural favourite to judge from the bookmakers. They will have lost a lot of money, I think. George was the favourite name from the start and so in that sense the Duke and Duchess reflected a popular trend.
'I think Prince William said he wanted to get to know him before they chose the name so they must feel he is a George.
'Alexander is a surprise. I'm not aware of any other Alexanders. I'm sure there must be reason for that, which I'm afraid I don't know. There's Alexander the Great, so there is a Greek connection. Louis is obviously a tribute to Lord Mountbatten.'
Mr Lacey, whose A Brief Life Of The Queen was published last year, said he did not think senior royals would have put pressure on the Duke and Duchess to choose the names.
He added: 'Prince Charles said the other day he had no idea what it was going to be. My guess is that it was very much the choice of the mother and father, but I'm sure they would have checked it with the Queen.
Welcome baby George . Our future king.
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