Prince defends internet registration

9 December 2003

AMSTERDAM — After the name of the Netherlands’ future queen was leaked to the media on Monday, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander defended the decision to register his daughter’s website address, Catharina-Amalia.nl, as being “highly necessary.”

The new father said on Tuesday royal family advisors tried to register a lot of names on Sunday night, some of which were being publicly mentioned. But he said many addresses were being registered by other people and they need to act quickly to secure the website name, newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Prince Willem-Alexander’s comments came after he registered the birth of Princess Catharina-Amalia Beatrix Carmen Victoria at a special ceremony in The Hague on Tuesday. He told the assembled dignitaries afterwards that his daughter would be known as Amalia.

Flanked by Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and the deputy chairman of the Council of State, Tjeenk Willink, who acted as his witnesses, the announcement ended two days of fevered media speculation about the baby’s name.

The media reported on Monday that the child would most likely be called Catharina-Amelia. Sources close to the royal family were said to have confirmed the name.

But the first clue came when it was discovered the sites www.catharina-amalia.nl/ and www.prinsescatharina-amalia.nl/ have been registered since 7 December under the name of the Stichting Sigillis Regiis Praesidio, a foundation which was set up to protect the royal family from commercial exploitation.

The websites initially linked back to the official site of the royal family or showed error messages. They are presently inactive.

And the prince smiled wryly on Tuesday when he revealed the name publicly and later said that an “intensely happy” Princess Maxima — who gave birth at 5.01pm on Sunday — and himself chose the names Catharina-Amalia because they both considered them to be beautiful names.

“They are names which occur in our family and are internationally useable,” he said.

The new princess is also named after Willem-Alexander’s mother, Queen Beatrix. The name Carmen comes from the mother of Princess Maxima, Maria Carmen Zorreguieta. The crown prince also said Victoria was a beautiful name because it signified victory.

Prince Willem-Alexander also said that both Princess Maxima and the baby — both of whom were released from hospital on Sunday night — were doing fine.

Subject: Dutch news