The baby - third in line to the royal throne after Prince Charles, his paternal grandfather, and William, his 31-year-old father - appeared to sleep throughout the two-minute hubbub that ensued when the royal couple stepped through the doorway of the Lindo wing, the private annex to St. Mary's Hospital at 7:15 p.m.
"He's got a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure," William said in response to questions from a packed gallery of reporters and photographers, as he held the infant in his arms, with Kate, formally known as the Duchess of Cambridge, standing beside him. "He's a big boy. He's quite heavy. We're still working on a name, but we will have that as soon as we can." The couple had waited 27 hours after the baby's birth Monday before emerging to the cheers and shouts of good will from the crowds waiting outside, including uniformed members of the hospital staff.
Striking an informal note that suggested something about the changes they may wish eventually to bring to royal life, the duchess was hatless and wearing a short-sleeved blue polka dot summer dress, with William in black jeans and an open-necked blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up.
Kate, who held the baby with one arm to wave, passed the child carefully to her husband before they crossed the road to speak with reporters. She described her feelings as "very emotional," and added, "Any parent will know what that's like."
William, responding to a question, said, "He's got her looks, thankfully." Kate quickly demurred, "No, no, I'm not sure about that."
Swaddled in a white baby shawl, his fair hair and fingers visible, the infant was carried by his beaming parents on a brief walk down the serried lines of the waiting media, before being taken back inside the hospital and buckled into a car seat. With William driving, a royal security aide beside him, and Kate with the infant in the back seat, they set off in a black Range Rover for the baby's first night in a royal palace.
Kensington Palace, which is to be the royal couple's London home, was also the home in which William and his brother, Prince Harry, spent much of their childhood, and where they were living when their mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, by then divorced from Charles, was killed in a Paris car crash in August 1997.
Some British commentators have described Diana, who was regarded as a virtual pariah by the royal court at the time of her death, as the phantom of the occasion. But Kate wore Diana's blue sapphire engagement ring Tuesday as she appeared for the first time with her baby, which conveyed its own message. So did the BBC's use of archive photographs of Diana and Charles emerging from the Lindo wing with William, their firstborn, in 1982.
It has been common royal practice - as it was with the infant William - for the parents to wait days, even weeks, to announce a name. Although royal officials have insisted that the choice will rest entirely with William and Kate, the newborn's status as an heir to the throne adds a special dimension to the task, and the widespread expectation is that they will settle on a name with a resonance in royal tradition.
In Britain's betting shops, which have been doing a brisk trade on the issue almost since Kate's pregnancy was announced, the strong favorites for a boy have been George, James, Philip, Henry and Edward, all names taken by British kings in the 1,000-year history of the monarchy.
Those betting on George have done so, in large measure, because of the strong affection that Queen Elizabeth II, great-grandmother of the new baby, has voiced for her father, King George VI, who died of lung cancer in 1952, while in his 50s. James has a strong resonance in Scotland, home of James, Britain's first Stuart king, and some in the royal family may favor sending a message to Scots 14 months before they are scheduled to vote in an independence referendum.
Philip is the name of Queen's Elizabeth's 92-year-old husband, a fixture and frequent subject of controversy in British public life for more than 65 years, who is convalescing after a series of hospitalizations in the past 18 months for various medical problems. He is expected to join the queen this weekend when she leaves London for her annual summer vacation at Balmoral Castle in Scotland, and there has been speculation that William and Kate will want to announce the baby's name by then.
The ease of manner displayed by William and Kate during their brief appearance outside the hospital - smiling and answering reporters' questions in the confident and amiable manner of a couple accustomed to celebrity - made for a striking contrast with the common practice among royals on similar occasions in recent decades.
When a reporter asked if the couple had experienced their first baby diaper change, Kate replied cheerfully, nodding at William, "He's done that already." At another point, speaking of the infant's hair, the prematurely balding William laughed and replied, "He's got more hair than me."
© 2013, The New York Times News Service
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