Congratulations to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on
their speedy selection of a proper name for their newborn prince: George.
The name George has a distinguished pedigree throughout
world history and our more contemporary times. England’s patron saint
is St. George and, of course, the media has widely commented on the importance
of the name George to the current Queen of England – both her father and
grandfather were King Georges (the VI and V, respectively).
Ok, that’s all well and good, but I suspect that the royals wanted to honor some other important Georges, as well, both male
and female – which is only to be expected from a thoroughly modern couple such as the
Cambridges. Among those distinguished Georges
are:
-
George Handel, classical composer
of The Messiah, among other beautiful pieces of music
-
George Sand, scandalous female
British author of the 19th century
-
George Eliot, female author of Silas Marner (for those who remember the
days when you were made to read this book in grade school)
-
George Orwell, another author of
the futuristic novel 1984 and creator
of “Big Brother” (not the TV show)
-
George Gershwin, composer of Porgy and Bess and Rhapsody in Blue (and one of Woody Allen’s favorite composers)
-
General George Patton, who defeated
Nazis throughout Europe during World War II so the Brits like him a lot – plus
George C. Scott, the American actor, won an Academy Award for playing him (I’d
call this a “2-fer”)
- George Washington, because everyone knows his contribution to the “Special Relationship”
- "W" and "41," a.k.a. U.S. Presidents
-
George Clooney, because he’s
George Clooney
-
George Lucas, Star Wars creator without whom we probably
wouldn’t have Comic-Con International or the "Transformer" movies (I’m
just saying…)
-
Curious George, the chimp that
launched a dozen children’s books….
So His Royal Highness Prince
George of Cambridge (a.k.a. George Mountbatten-Windsor) has quite the storied name,
indeed. Long may he enjoy it!
No comments:
Post a Comment