Is it true that Louise's real name was actually
Louisa?
I had never heard or read that before but it says so in the following information:
Princess Louise of Great Britain
1848
Parents: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Queen Victoria
Born: 18 March 1848 at Buckingham Palace; Died: 3 December 1939 at Kensington Palace
Christened: 13 May 1848 in the Private Chapel at Buckingham Palace by John Bird Sumner, Archbishop of Canterbury*
Names: Louisa Caroline Alberta†
Godparents:
• Duke Gustav of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (for whom her father Prince Albert stood proxy)‡
• the Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen (née Princess Marie of Hesse-Cassel, for whom Dowager Queen Adelaide stood proxy)
• the Hereditary Grand Duchess (later Grand Duchess) of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (née Princess Augusta of Great Britain, the Queen's cousin, for whom Augusta's mother the Duchess of Cambridge stood proxy)
Sources: BBR:246; Illustrated London News, 30 May 1848; The Times, 15 May 1848; Wake:19-20
* Queen Victoria's elderly aunt, Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester, was a guest at the ceremony. The Duchess was, however, "in one of her nervous states", according to Her Majesty when she wrote to her uncle King Leopold I three days later, "and gave us a dreadful fright at the Christening by quite forgetting where she was, and coming and kneeling at my feet in the midst of the service. Imagine our horror!" (Benson/Esher, Letters, Vol. II, p. 174)
† The names pronounced at Princess Louise's christening were Louisa Caroline Alberta, but within a few years, "the first name by which she was known [Louisa] took the form of Louise". (Williamson, Brewer's British Royalty, p. 246)
‡ Princess Louise's parents had initially chosen a fourth godparent for their daughter (the Prince of Prussia, the future German Emperor Wilhelm I), but it was deemed politically prudent not to have a member of a royal family whose throne was seen as unstable during the revolutionary state of affairs in Europe at this time. (Wake, Princess Louise, p. 20)
From the Royal Christenings site:
http://users.uniserve.com/~canyon/christenings.htm#Christenings