Eugenie Bouchard, left, was named after Princess Eugenie of York. Photo: Carl Court, AFP/Getty Images and Stuart C. Wilson, Getty Images Eugenie Bouchard, the Canadian sensation of the tennis court, has some interesting connections with the royal court — she is named after one of the Queen’s granddaughters. And many in the British media are already calling her the Queen of Wimbledon.
“Bouchard grew up in an English-speaking neighbourhood of Montreal. She and her siblings — Beatrice, Charlotte and William — were named for British royalty. Their mother, Julie, Bouchard joked, is a ‘closet royalist,’ ” reported the New York Times. “Eugenie and Beatrice are twins, named for the daughters of Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York. That tidbit was received well by the British news media.”
Princess Eugenie of York was named after Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, a former Queen of Spain and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Prince Andrew and Sarah, Duchess of York (née Sarah Ferguson) wave to crowds on July 23, 1986 from the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
(Though, there is some dispute about whether Bouchard’s sister is named after Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz or Charlotte Casiraghi, fifth in line to the throne of Monaco — but that’s another story.)
Princess Beatrice arrives on Centre Court on day nine of Wimbledon. Eugenie Bouchard’s twin sister, Beatrice, is named after Princess Beatrice. Andrew Yates,AFP/Getty Images.
The Daily Mail noted that not even the presence of royalty seemed to throw Bouchard off her game: “Nothing seemed to faze her, but then Bouchard is named after Princess Eugenie of York, so perhaps it was fitting she performed so well under the Centre Court roof in front of a Royal Box boasting the Duke of Kent and the Countess of Wessex.”
Sophie, Countess of Wessex looks on from the Royal Box on day seven of Wimbledon. Clive Brunskill, Getty Images.
Bouchard was quick to point out that she is not the one who takes interest in the Royals.
“First off, I should say it’s a parental interest in royalty, probably mostly my mother. She named us, so I wasn’t really aware of what was going on at that time,” the Daily Mail reported she said.
In another story, the Mail quoted Bouchard saying that her royal connection helped her feel comfortable in Britain: ” ‘Maybe it looks like my parents were royal obsessed, it makes me feel a little bit more at home in England among my fellow royals …When I was young my Mum gave me a magazine with the two princesses in it and I still keep it on my bedside table, my brother is Prince William. I think they are just nice names that they liked.’ “
Does Bouchard have any princess-like habits? Apparently the star admitted as much to reporters.
“Bouchard is no wide-eyed ingenue, but a steely young woman with more than a few diva-like affectations. She is at the stage where her fitness trainer carries her bag to the court, and more than once during Monday’s tussle with Cornet she snatched her towel off the ball-girls with marked abruptness,” wrote the Telegraph’s Oliver Brown.
Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, were also spotted in the Royal box at Wimbledon earlier this week. Pool/Getty Images.
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