We’re all getting royal baby name fever, and Nameberry are currently running a “Guess the Royal Baby Name” Competition. You have to pick the full name, with all middle names in their correct order, for ONE GENDER ONLY and you can only guess ONCE. More than 200 people have already entered, so don’t forget to check that someone hasn’t already made your suggestion. The first correct entry wins a $100 gift voucher from the Nameberry store – what a fantastic prize! Be in it to win it.

The Maitland Mercury is also running a royal baby name contest, and you only have to get the first two names right. So if you guess Victoria Alice Mary Rose, and the baby is named Victoria Alice Elizabeth Diana – that’s good enough. To give you some ideas, the most common names in both family trees are Elizabeth and John, but more unusual names from the baby’s ancestry include Boniface, Lancelot, Cyrian, Marmaduke, Sylvanus, Garin, Theophilus, Elie, Eusebia, Honor, Thomasin, Ursula, Permelia, Albina, Grissel, and Hyacinth. To enter, get your hands on a copy of the July 8 edition of the Mercury, and fill in the enclosed coupon. The prize will be a piece of royal memorabilia.

The Gold Coast Bulletin ran a royal baby name contest of their own, and some of the suggestions were Hashtag, Betty, Frank and Cody. Favourite names chosen for the future prince or princess by Gold Coasters included Jack or Juliette, Nicholas or Sally, Cyril or Charlotte, Jacinta and Isabel. The most commonly suggested names were Elizabeth or Diana for a girl, and George for a boy. A local royal watcher is hoping for a Victoria or an Edward.

Meanwhile, an Australian relative of Kate Middleton’s mother from Gilgandra predicts that the royal baby will be a girl named Elizabeth. She will be born between 2 pm and midnight, and weigh less than 2.26 kg (5 lb). She also predicted the baby would be born “within a few days” on July 5, so I think that one at least has got away from her.

Is your son named Jack, Joshua or Thomas? If so, you’ve gone with a safe bet, as these are the only names to have appeared on every Top 10 names list in New South Wales since 1995, with powerhouse Joshua the number one name from 1995 to 2003. No girls names have managed to withstand the test of time like this.

Perhaps you went with something less popular – if so, you don’t need to worry. Journalist Fallon Hudson admits that she hated her unusual name growing up, and thought about changing it to Sarah or Jessica. Her name was confused with Falcon and Felon, and sometimes it just plain confused people. But she’s learned to appreciate her name, even embraced it. So if your children aren’t too enthusiastic about their names, just wait a while. They might come around.

Have you ever bought a dining table named Ashton or a flower arrangement called Ava, and wondered how businesses pick out human names for their products? Hat designer Brenda Lui, who has headwear named Gretel, Celeste, Jacinta and Kiama, explains that she picks her feminine hat names out of a baby name book in alphabetical order. I would love to know how she selects a name from within each letter of the alphabet. Brenda, if you ever read this, please get in contact!

The rugby league columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald wonders when the birth of a footballer’s baby became news. I don’t know, but I feel I’m not helping the matter … On June 10, the columnist fretted as to why Jonathan Thurston’s baby hadn’t been announced in a press release (I feel his pain), and said sarcastically that if anyone could publish the baby’s name it would be as big as Watergate. If you check my blog, June 10 was when I announced Frankie Louise Thurston’s name, which the Cowboys had announced through their Twitter account. Now I feel like Woodward and Bernstein … which makes Twitter Deep Throat.