Lilibet Diana, a royal baby so aptly named
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan named their daughter Lilibet (Lili) Diana Mountbatten-Windsor on Friday, a nod to the two most prominent women in British royalty. A cheeky turn after a year of angry with the Firm.
They are very strong. They could have chosen Ashley or Harper, typically American names, just to confirm the break. Or Kamala, Michelle or even Hillary, to signify their political conscience. But no, they were much smarter. Prince Harry and his wife Meghan have named their new born daughter, Lilibet (Lili) Diana Mountbatten-Windsor! If it's not great art, it looks a lot like it.
Lilibet is the nickname that the family gave to Queen Elizabeth II when she was a child, and that her husband Prince Philip, who died on April 9, also loved. And Diana is of course the first name of the famous princess, mother of Harry, who died at the age of 36 in a car accident in Paris, twenty-four years ago. “Lili was named after her great-grandmother, Her Majesty the Queen, whose family nickname is Lilibet. Her other name, Diana, was chosen to honor her beloved missing grandmother, ”said a spokesperson for the couple, just to dispel any doubt. Named after a queen whose longevity is historic and a glamorous princess whose life was tragically cut short. What a legacy!
The little girl, who weighed 3.5 kg, is the couple's second child after Archie, 2. She was born at 11:40 a.m. on Friday in a hospital in Santa Barbara, California, where the couple went into exile a year and a half ago. "The child and mother are doing well and have returned home," said the spokesperson for the princely couple very traditionally.
Strong symbol
After a year of anger, sulkiness and other interviews accusing the royal family of racism and indifference, even cowardice, the young couple, married in 2018, make a spectacular turn by holding out an olive branch that is difficult to throw off the nettles. Adding the first names of the two most prominent women of British royalty of the past fifty years is cheeky. Especially since the Queen and Diana have never had a very close relationship.
And that the tragic death of the second - her son Harry was then 12 - and the initial apparent coldness of the first had dangerously shaken the institution, the "Firm", the British monarchy. But the symbol is strong. Elizabeth II, who has just celebrated her 95th birthday, represents the immutable, the strength of constancy, it is not obsolete because it is unclassifiable, beyond fashions, time and vagaries. Diana, who would have turned 60 on July 1, embodied passionate youth, a certain modernity and a burning desire to break the shackles, to walk alongside the lines drawn for centuries.
Lili, the Queen's eleventh great-grandchild, and eighth in order of accession to the throne, will never reign. Neither was his father, Harry, who has given up all royal activity. No doubt, the sharp criticisms against the choice of the couple will not fail, but today, we will choose to ignore them, to renounce for a few moments the cynicism so widespread. This little girl, who "represents more than we ever imagined", according to her parents, will perhaps succeed in the impossible, reconciling these two notions, constancy and passion, immutable and modernity. Long live Lili!
