Prince William Honors His Mother by Giving Daughter Diana’s Name

It was a momentous occasion when Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton on the day of their engagement.

He presented her with his mother's iconic sapphire ring, promising that Princess Diana would always be a part of his life.

However, this gesture was seen as risky and even fatalistic by some, given the deep unhappiness associated with the diamond-encrusted sapphire.

It was feared that he was saddling his fiancée with an impossibly heavy burden.

Four and a half years later, Prince William has made his promise about his mother even more permanent by giving their daughter Diana's name.

This remarkable action shows that he intends to ensure that the attempts by a ruthless establishment to airbrush his mother from her place in royal history are not just stalled, but halted in their tracks.

By giving Princess Charlotte the names of both his mother and grandmother, William has sent a clear signal about the kind of king he intends to be – conventional on the one hand, but spirited and single-minded on the other.

It is no secret that there has been opposition to Princess Diana even within his own family.

For this reason, no statue has been erected in her memory, despite the overwhelming wish of her many supporters.

Many will now wonder if this official thawing in attitudes towards Princess Diana will mean that what they see as a historic wrong is finally righted.

Friends and fans had accepted that no sculpture was commissioned because no representation could do her justice.

Instead, a fountain of running water in a London park near her Kensington Palace home was chosen to symbolize such an extraordinary young woman.

However, as the years have passed, this tribute has looked increasingly inadequate.

For William, the message could not be clearer.

Diana is a non-negotiable part of his life.

Traditionally, royal middle names are rarely significant.

However, by giving his daughter the middle names Elizabeth and Diana, he has undoubtedly found a new approach.

Before meeting Kate, his mother and grandmother were the two most important women in his life.

By choosing Elizabeth, he ensures that this most royal of names continues at the top of the royal family for another generation.

Prince Charles is doubly thrilled because it continues the thread to his beloved grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

It is clear that Princess Charlotte's name is a nod to the Prince of Wales too.

However, already the internet is buzzing with talk about the new Princess Dee, and regardless of the fact that it is only the new princess's third name, it seems inevitable that many will be desperate to see if Charlotte shares characteristics with her grandmother.

More than anyone, William knows the risks of selecting the name Diana.

He was clear that his baby girl should not have Diana as a first name.

It would have been an impossible burden for the Diana obsessives who mark every July 1st, her birthday, and the anniversary of her death on August 31st.

Ever since losing his mother, William has been frustrated by criticism that he has not done enough to celebrate her life.

On the contrary, in his quiet way, he has been doing precisely that for a very long time.

Two weeks before Christmas 1997, three months after their mother's death, he and Harry paid their first return visit to Kensington Palace.

Their former nanny, Olga Powell, greeted them.

Also there was their mother's butler Paul Burrell.

It was unbelievably poignant as the boys, then age 15 and 13, walked from room to room, reconnecting with the life they shared there with their mother.

Returning to his childhood home that day was another meaningful step on the road for William in ensuring that the link with his mother remained unbroken.

Similarly, it would have been easy for the Cambridges to have chosen a royal home other than Kensington Palace in which to start their married life.

But for William, choosing his mother's residence meant he was coming home.

It was, however, too late to reclaim his mother's old apartment.

It had been stripped of every single item, everything from the wallpaper to the carpets to light bulbs and wire coat hangers had been removed.

It had also been broken up; some of Charles's charity staff occupied part of it, and it had been converted into accommodation for senior military officers.

William had to make do instead with Princess Margaret's old home, grander for sure, but a place filled with someone else's memories.

Nevertheless, it was another step towards stitching his life with Diana into the new story he was making with Kate.

As for a country home, many thought he would head west to Gloucestershire, where so many royals live.

But he chose Norfolk, another signal of Diana's influence, perhaps, for this was where she spent her early years, as neighbors of the Queen at Park House on the Sandringham Estate.

Her family, the Spencers, had a beach hut at Brencaster on the north Norfolk coast where William and Harry loved to play.

It is close to Emmerhall, where he and Kate will be spending much of the next six weeks getting to know their new baby.

Prince William has never felt the need to talk publicly about his mother.

However, privately, he speaks up for her and hates to think she has been written out of the script.

Choosing Diana is another way of saying so.

One gesture which some think he may now address is how his mother lost her royal status after her divorce from Prince Charles.

In return for her £17 million settlement, Diana was no longer entitled to be styled HRH, highly unusual for the mother of a future king.

It could eventually be opened to William to restore those three letters and end another divisive chapter in the story of his parents' marriage.

When he presented Kate with that engagement ring, which was once on his mother's finger, he said he didn't want Diana to miss out on today and the excitement in the fact that they are going to spend the rest of their lives together.

How fitting then that by now bestowing Diana's name on their daughter, he has ensured that she will have a perpetual part in their child's life too.