Prince George Nearly Had a Different Name That Princess Kate "Set Her Heart On"

Naming a baby is stressful enough for the average parent, but for a member of the Royal Family, it's a whole different ballgame. When it comes to Prince George—who somehow will turn 12 this year—it turns out Princess Kate and Prince William could've gone in an entirely different direction for his name. In fact, the princess loved one particular name that still ended up making the cut, albeit it in a different way.

The Prince and Princess of Wales—then known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge—welcomed their first child into the world on July 22, 2013. But ahead of George's birth, there seems to have been some debate on what to call him.

Writing in Vanity Fair, royal biographer Katie Nicholl shared that according to palace sources, William and Kate "had not found out the sex of their unborn baby." Prince William in particular "wanted a surprise," per those close to the couple.

"When I saw William a few weeks before the birth he said they didn’t know and didn’t want to find out," a friend told Nicholl. "He said there are so few surprises in life—this was one he wanted to keep. Kate said she thought it was a boy because the baby kicked so much."

However, Nicholl noted that although "Kate apparently suspected it was a boy and had set her heart on the name Alexander, they had not yet decided what to call their firstborn" ahead of his birth. Instead, they referred to him as a sweet nickname, "our little grape."

So how did Alexander end up scrapped? Apparently, it was all down to their beloved cocker spaniel, Lupo, who died in 2020.

The Times reported that William and Kate wrote down all of the names they liked on pieces of paper, put them on the floor of their home, and let Lupo decide which one was the winner based off of what piece of paper he went to first.

Although Princess Kate didn't win on her son's first name, Alexander ended up being included in George's regal moniker after all: The prince's full name is George Alexander Louis. Surprisingly, the couple didn't go with Alexander when their second son was born in 2018, but they did choose George's second middle name for little Prince Louis.