So, if you have a William..

[FessaEst]

are the names Catherine/Kate etc out for you now? And vice versa?

I don't think they are as unusual as Charles and Diana say, so you could perhaps get away with them in a sibling set.....

[52Girls]

I do have one and wouldn't choose Catherine/Kate now.

[tammytoby]

Of course they are out! Firstly they will get even more popular and secondly you cannot have two children named William and Kate .

[FessaEst]

I'm guessing there must be families that already have one of each - they are both fairly popular names.

It would seem a bit odd to do it deliberately I guess.

Do you think these names will become more popular as a result of the wedding? (Can William be much more popular? [cgrin])!

[tammytoby]

I think a lot of people must be swayed to William due to Prince William. Personally I don't like it, especially the short forms Will, Willy or Billy.

[52Girls]

My son is the only W in his school. So it's not popular everywhere.

[52Girls]

Only knobs would think if Prince William when naming their baby. It's a fabulous name on its own without royal connections.

[peeriebear]

I've always liked the name William (Will) and only know one, he is 9.

[squeak2392]

It depends how far apart the kids are. If they were twins, I would definitely not use both names, but if Catherine was 10 and I was expecting William, then that would be fine.

[Ooopsadaisy]

When pg with DC2 our names were William for a boy and Katherine for a girl. (That's with the K spelling as it has family relevance).

Just a coincidence as it was back in 1998!

As it was, we went for another name for DD anyway as another family member grabbed Katherine before us, but DD loves this fact.

[randomimposter]

erm, yes would avoid, although there are LOTS of girls names I prefer to Katherine/Catherine/Katharine anyway.

For the same reason DS2 won't be named after FIL (Harry)... .

Actually I didn't realise til yesterday that DS name+middle name is exactly like the Duke of Cambridge's first 2 names IYSWIM...? Ha ha.

[Sparklies]

Yep :(

We don't hate the royal family but we're far from royalists.

We have a Catherine. Worse, we also have another DD whose name is a derivative of Elizabeth. We were seriously considering our next baby (if he was a boy, which he is) to be William long before any talk of royal weddings or realising the connection. I delivered DS on Thursday, the day before the nuptials.

I didn't even watch the wedding as I was showing DS to the hospital paediatrician at the time!

Maybe we wouldn't have called him William after all but it's not nice to have a name choice we both quite liked (and believe me, there aren't many of those..) completely ruled out!!

[CarefulWithThatAxeEugene]

They are both timeless popular names with multiple variations and nicknames, so I don't think people would assume any particular royal association.

[Psammead]

Any other famous couple and I would say it's fine, because by the time the children were older, the couple would probably be fairly obscure.

But William will probably be King one day and Catherine will be Queen. They are going to be around for most of the children's adult lives so I think it would be a no-no.

[FessaEst]

congratulations Sparklies - what did you go for in the end?