For a while now, I’ve been letting the gender-guessing shenanigans for the royal baby just fall to the way-side. We’ll know what Duchess Kate and Prince William are having soon enough, and I’m actually looking forward to all of it – finding out the sex, finding out the name, finding out if Kate is actually back to living with her parents now and whether she plans to take the baby to her parents’ house for the first few months. We’ll know soon.

But! The UK tabloids are obsessed and it seems like everyone has Royal Baby Fever, so there has been endless reporting on potential baby names and endless speculation about the sex of the baby. A week ago, it was widely reported that Kate had gotten a BLUE stroller, which… obviously, blue = boy? And now there are reports that Harry is telling friends that Kate is definitely pregnant with a boy:

Prince Harry has been telling friends that Kate and William are expecting a boy, it was reported today. He is so happy about becoming an uncle he couldn’t keep the secret of the baby’s sex to himself.

The bookies are offering odds of 1/3 favourite on the Duchess of Cambridge having a girl and 5/2 for a boy, even though couple have made no official announcement about the baby due in mid-July.

But those odds may change after a source close to the Prince said: ‘Harry has been telling everyone Wills and Kate are having a boy and how thrilled he is at the prospect of having a little nephew. He said the whole family were excited about it. Apparently Kate has always wanted a boy. They’re really working hard on baby names now and think they have it sorted.’

Princess Eugenie, Prince William’s cousin, has also been telling friends the baby is a boy, according to another royal insider quoted by the Sunday People.

The source said: ‘They won’t reveal anything to ­anyone – not even Harry. Of course, Harry’s been making up crazy suggestions and winding them up too. The close inner circle all know that it’s a boy and they’re busily buying gifts with a boy theme. There will be an awful lot if blue in their house.’

Although the couple have kept mum about the baby’s name, Kate, 31, has accidentally dropped a couple of hints about the sex of the child in recent months. In March she appeared to suggest a girl was on the way when she given a teddy by a well-wisher during a walkabout in Grimsby.

She said: ‘I will take that for my d..’ – and then stopped herself. A nearby listener said: ‘You were going to say daughter, weren’t you? Kate replied: ‘No, we don’t know.’

A few days later Kate appeared to drop another clue as she revealed she had bought a Bugaboo pram in light blue which could indicate the newborn would be a boy. The pram’s colour came to light when Kate chatted to a group of Army wives at a reception on St Patrick’s Day.

Then Prince Harry was seen holding a blue teddy bear as he walked to Kensington Palace, the home he shares with Kate and William in London. But there was a simple explanation: The bear had been given to him by a little girl while he toured Nottingham. She asked him to give it to Kate’s baby and he delivered it in person.

But another insider added: “Even though there’s a lot of gossip doing the rounds, there’s no way anyone can confirm it at the moment.’

The paper claims that no decision has been made where Kate will have the baby, but the choice has been narrowed down to two hospitals.

Princess Diana Prince had William and Harry at St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, West London, while there is speculation that the child could be born at the Royal Berkshire Hospital – the birthplace of Kate and her sister Pippa.

[From The Mail]

Re: Kate saying “I’ll give this to my d” – I still think she was going to say “dog”. Anyway, sources claim that Kate wants a son and William was keen on a daughter. Personally, I’m kind of hoping it is a boy just because I think both William and Kate would do better with a son for their first child. And I just feel like there will be less drama (at first) with a boy. Plus, I just was not looking forward to William demanding that his baby girl should have the first name “Diana”. Even my Diana-loonie mother thought that was a bad idea.

So… at this point, I guess I kind of believe that they’re having a boy. What should they name him? These are the names that will be in the mix for first and middle names: George, Arthur, Phillip, Charles, Edward, Albert, Michael (for Kate’s dad), and maybe even Henry (Harry’s real name). Maybe John, which is by far my favorite of all of the royal name choices for a boy. How about John Charles Henry? John Phillip Charles? John Michael Charles? George Michael [Bluth]?

Photos courtesy of WENN.