Download Will it be a girl called Alexandra, or a boy called Wayne? No one outside Buckingham Palace knows, but it has not stopped punters from around the world betting on Britain's royal baby. Bookmakers say they expect that wagers on the arrival of Prince William and Catherine's first child will outstrip those for the couple's wedding in 2011, previously the biggest market for so-called novelty bets. There is a right royal choice of odds ranging from the baby's sex, weight and hair color to even whether Kate will be "too posh to push" and have a caesarean. "It's a global market," said Joe Crilly, a spokesman for British bookies William Hill, who added that the big money is on the baby's name. Traditional names head the list, led by Alexandra and followed by Charlotte, Elizabeth, Diana and Victoria when it comes to girls' names, and George, James and Louis for boys. Alexandra is Queen Elizabeth II's middle name, Charlotte is the middle name of Kate's sister Pippa and the name of King George III's wife, while Victoria would honor Britain's longest-serving monarch. Unlikelier choices include Hashtag, the Twitter term on which Irish bookmaker Paddy Power took a bet at 500/1, and Wayne and Waynetta, after slobby characters in a British television comedy, at 250/1 and 500/1. Punters can also get odds of 5,000/1 on Psy, after the South Korean pop star, or North, the name of rapper Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's new baby. |