Royal Baby Name Announced

LONDON (AP) — Royal officials say Britain's new prince has been named George Alexander Louis.

Palace officials said Wednesday that the 2-day-old baby and third-in-line to the throne will be known as His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge.

Palace officials say Prince William and his wife Kate are spending "private and quiet time for them to get to know their son" — and, perhaps, to figure out ways to shield him from intense public and media interest.

At least the relationship got off to a good start. The baby slept through his first photo op outside London's St. Mary's Hospital, while his parents beamed as they chatted easily with reporters. For a royal family that has had a fraught relationship with the media, it was a positive sign.

"I thought, is this an Oscar-winning performance?" said Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty magazine. "But I think they were so genuinely overjoyed that they wanted to show off the baby."

After leaving the hospital, the couple introduced their son to his uncle, Prince Harry, and to great-grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, keen to see the baby before she starts her annual summer vacation in Scotland later this week.

Then they headed to see Kate's parents in their village near London.

There has been so much royal drama in the last few decades that it's easy to forget that William had, by royal standards, a relatively normal childhood.

His parents' troubled marriage may have ended in divorce, but Prince Charles and Princess Diana were devoted parents who tried to spend as much time as possible with their children — albeit with an assist from nannies. The queen was sometimes away on official tours for months at a time when her children were young, but Charles and Diana took William along on a tour to Australia when he was just 9 months old.

The queen was educated at home, in keeping with royal tradition. But she sent her own children to boarding schools, and Charles and Diana did the same with William and his younger brother Harry — choosing Eton, one of the biggest and most prestigious boys' schools in the country.