Princess Not a Common Name for Babies in Scotland

--A Scottish couple believe that their 21-month-old girl will always be a princess--King George V, Buckingham Palace and the Scottish General Register Office to the contrary. Audrey and Hugh Manwaring-Spencer of the Isle of Skye tangled with history and the bureaucracy--and at this point losing the fight--after their decision to name their fifth child Princess Dulcima Rosetta. As it happens, an order issued in 1910 during King George V’s reign barred the use of the name Princess because “it is part of the Crown’s prerogative,” the register office in Edinburgh said. “We simply liked the name,” Audrey said. “Every family argues over what to call their children. We liked Princess.” The family--tenant farmers--then appealed to Queen Elizabeth II, and Buckingham Palace replied that the queen did not mind use of the name. Later, the family heard from a palace spokesman, who dutifully reported that, unfortunately, a 1965 Scottish birth registration law forbids the use of the name by commoners. “We have a birth certificate in the name of Princess. Any man has a right to call children what he wishes,” Audrey said.

--Britain’s Prince Charles, wearing a green double-breasted jacket and white polo trousers, took a walk on the wild side. Actually, Charles was in West Palm Beach, Fla., for a polo match and a luncheon that was expected to raise $120,000 for the nonprofit Friends of the Masai Mara, a wildlife preserve on the Serengeti Plain in Kenya. But while mingling with the high-stepping socialites, Charles took time to pet a cheetah at a wildlife exhibit and observe a tawny eagle swoop down to snatch a piece of chicken from the hand of Jim Fowler, host of the TV show “Wild Kingdom.” “Is that off the luncheon menu?” the prince asked. Not to worry, said a U.S. State Department spokesman, since the prince “never eats before a match.”

--When Israeli Cabinet member Ariel Sharon moved into the tense Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem’s walled Old City last December, some said he was trying to stir up trouble. But the latest speculation is that Sharon, the retired general who led Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, may run for mayor of Jerusalem. The newspaper Haaretz tells of a number of people seeing the move as a way to meet the city’s nine-month residency rule for the mayoral contest.