A Danish Princess is born

On April 21st, 2007 The Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark welcomed a daughter. This is the second child for the Crown couple, the first being Prince Christian, who was born in October 2005. As with Prince Christian, the baby's name will not be announced until her christening, which will take place on July 1st.

The birth of a healthy child is always a joyous event, but this particular baby is somewhat special. She is the first Danish princess born into the royal family in 60 years. The last was Queen Anne-Marie of Greece, sister of Queen Margrethe, in 1946. Queen Margarethe has two sisters, Princess Benedikte and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. After Margarethe married in 1967, she had two sons - Crown Prince Frederik and Prince Joachim. Until the birth of this little girl she had three grandsons, Prince Nikolai, Prince Felix and Prince Christian.

There is much speculation on what her name will be. For unlike her brother, whose name comes from centuries of tradition and who I wrote about in The Christian Tradition Continues no such tradition exists for females. For now, she is called 'mini-Mary' in the press and 'Lillepige' (translation: little girl) by her parents.

Names they could choose if they wanted to honor the family include Margarethe (after her paternal grandmother), Henrietta (after the Crown Princess's late mother), Ingrid (after her great-grandmother, Queen Ingrid), or Margaret (after her great-great grandmother, the former Margaret of Connaught, sister of Princess Patricia of Connaught.

© Marilyn Braun 2007

Photos courtesy of the official website of TRH The Crown Prince and Princess of Denmark.