Names: Will it be Prince John or Princess Hashtag?

If it's a boy, John and Charles are the bookies favourites (Rex Features)

What’s in a name? A lot, apparently, because barely had the royal-baby news been announced before newspapers went into naming meltdown and patriotic punters set off to local dens of iniquity for a flutter on the new Royal’s name.

If it’s a boy, John and Charles are 10/1 favourites, according to bookies Ladbrokes, but a lot of money was coming in last night for George, who moved from 14/1 to 10/1. For a girl, the odds for the favourite, Elizabeth, have been slashed to 7/1 after one Midlands gambler placed £1,000 on the Queen’s namesake.

Not happy following the bookies’ lead, the Daily Mail led the pack speculating (seemingly without any evidence) that royal-family names, including Alexandra, Victoria and Mary, could be in the frame. The Daily Mirror went one better by wheeling out “royal expert” Phil Dampier to predict, predictably, that Prince William “could” name his little princess after his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales. Yes, he could, couldn’t he? Give that man a deal for a big book for all the baby names the couple “could” opt for.

Independent readers have got in on the action, too, with a poll on the Indy Voices website putting the tongue-in-cheek “Windsorsauraus” in second place (after Diana). Hashtag and Engelbert come in fourth and fifth, so somehow Trending doesn’t think you people are taking it as seriously as we are.