Prince George brings fame, pending fortune to northern Canadian city

GlobalPost
The World

You know his first name, but — quickly — what’s the royal baby’s last name?

OK, it’s a trick question, because he has three choices: Wales, Cambridge or Mountbatten-Windsor.

His father, Prince William, and Uncle Harry use "Wales" on their uniforms during military service. The other options come from his ancestors and grandparents.

Just days old, and already the Little Prince, George Alexander Louis, has options.

If we base his choice on his father’s, it makes his initials GALW.

Having just gone through this with my two young daughters — spending hours at Nameberry.com scouring our choices — I think Will and Kate missed an amazing opportunity to name him Charles Louis Alexander, or CLAW.

Just think of the marketing opportunities they surrendered should their first-born develop into an internationally famous cricketer or super-spy: The CLAW!

He’d be the coolest kid on the playground.

There’s a few of my fellow Canadians, however, who completely disagree with me, and they all live in Prince George, British Columbia.

“PG” is now cool. It’s never been cool. Ever.

“We just heard,” Sherry Powney of the city’s tourism agency told CBC. “That’s awesome. Woo-hoo! I just think it’s great. It’ll put us on the map. That’s awesome.”

Uh, Sherry, you’re already on the map: waaaay up north, nine hours north of Vancouver, in fact.

A somewhat rough-and-tumble northern forestry town of less than 90,000 people, Prince George is in Canada's western-most province.

PG was named after the royal baby’s great-great-great … well, one of his grandfathers, the Mad King George III who ruled England when America divided itself from the monarchy.

His life spawned a movie called "The Madness of King George."

Needless to say, the city couldn’t be happier about having a newer, cuter connection to the royal family.

You just can’t imagine the jealousy in Prince Rupert, Prince Albert and everywhere across Prince Edward Island.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.