Royal names in Sweden (updated)

On 26 March 2021 at 11.19am the third son of Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia of Sweden was born at the Danderyd Hospital in Stockholm. While we usually had to wait for the names of a newborn Swedish prince or princess until the Monday, the council this time was already held on Sunday 28 March 2021. The names and ducal title of the newborn were announced there.

The big question is of course which names the baby would receive. The present generation of Swedish royal babies not necessarily received traditional names. While they often have surprised us with the first name, the other christian names might be more traditional.

• Estelle Silvia Ewa Mary (named after Countess Estelle Bernadotte, the grandmothers Queen Silvia, Ewa Westling and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark)
• Oscar Carl Olof (traditional name, followed by the – partial – names of the grandfathers)
• Alexander Erik Hubertus Bertil (non traditional name, followed by the name of the maternal grandfather, one of the christening names of the paternal grandfather, and the name of the late uncle and godfather of Prince Carl Philip)
• Gabriel Carl Walther (non traditional name, followed by the first part of the name of the paternal grandfather, and the name of a maternal uncle of Prince Carl Philip)
• Leonore Lilian Maria (non traditional name, followed by the name of the late Princess Lilian and the middle name of the mother of Christopher O’Neill)
• Nicolas Paul Gustaf (non traditional name, followed by the name of the paternal grandfather and the second name of the maternal grandfather)
• Adrienne Josephine Alice (non traditional name, followed by a Bernadotte name, als carried by her mother Princess Madeleine, and the name of the maternal grandmother of Princess Madeleine)

I said last week that I would not be surprised if the name, like Alexander and Gabriel, is listed in the Top 100 of Swedish male names. As the other two sons got a rather long name, a shorter name to my opinion would be less fitting, but that’s just my opinion. Who knows they might chose Oliver, Ludvig, Theodor, Casper or Samuel. We’ll hopefully find out on Sunday.

UPDATE 28 March 2021: The newborn Prince was named Prince Julian Herbert Folke of Sweden, Duke of Halland. He indeed received an untraditional first name, ranked 77th in the Top 100 of Swedish male names in 2020. Herbert was one of the names of Princess Sofia’s maternal grandfather, while Folke is one of the middle names of the paternal grandfather (who was named after Count Folke Bernadotte).

Which names were thus far given in the Swedish royal family?

A royalty acquaintance of mine, who like me loves lists, recently sent me his list of first names given in European royal families since 1871. Let’s show you the Swedes, the year of birth is between bricks. I myself added the names given to the royal babies since the birth of the first Bernadotte King Karl XIV Johan, then a mere Jean Baptiste Bernadotte.

• Adrienne (2018)
• Alexander (2016)
• Astrid (1905)
• August (1831)
• Bertil (1912)
• Birgitta (1937)
• Carl (1826, 1911)
• Carl Gustaf (1946)
• Carl Johan (1916)
• Carl Oscar (1852)
• Carl Philip (1979)
• Christina (1943)
• Désirée (1938)
• Erik (1889)
• Estelle (2012)
• Eugen (1865)
• Eugenie (1830)
• Gabriel (2017)
• Gustaf (1827, 1858)
• Gustaf Adolf (1882, 1906)
• Ingrid (1910)
• Julian (2021)
• Karl Johan (1763)
• Lennart (1909)
• Leonore (2014)
• Louise (1851)
• Madeleine (1982)
• Margaretha (1899, 1934)
• Märtha (1901)
• Nicolas (2015)
• Oscar (1799, 1829, 2016)
• Sigvard (1907)
• Victoria (1977)
• Vilhelm (1884)