Zara Phillips’s new baby is called POPPY, visitors to the maternity unit claimed yesterday.
Adele Horton, 30, said her brother Tom – whose partner Charlotte Essex gave birth to a baby boy yesterday – spoke to Zara at a rugby match in November.
Chuffed Adele’s brother Tom and Charlotte, both 33, had their yet to be named baby at 5.50am yesterday.
Adele, a support worker from Gloucester, said: “My brother was down at the rugby and he quite often sees Zara because she is sometimes down in the stands.
“He saw her at the Japan game on November 12 and told her that his girlfriend was due the same time and that they were thinking about the name Teddy, so she better not steal it.
“She was having a joke back and saying that they were thinking of Poppy – so maybe that will be the name.”
Adele arrived to visit the new arrival with sister Leanne Green, 27, who said there had been a “buzz” around the ward yesterday morning.
Leanne said a blacked out Land Rover with a personalised number plate was spotted leaving the hospital grounds at around 11am.
Waitress Leanne said: “They said they saw a blacked out Land Rover with some sort of personal plate – they couldn’t remember what – leaving out the back gate.
“Their room looks over the back bit of the hospital. Charlotte said there was a buzz around the ward this morning but they didn’t see Zara or anyone.
“They said the buzz was more midwives coming and going in the corridors and she could hear midwives mentioning ‘Zara’ around mid-morning today.”
Princess Anne took a break from grand-parenting duties yesterday – to take her dogs out.
Anne was seen driving around Gatcombe Estate, in Gloucester, in her Range Rover, and going for a walk with her pets.
Shortly afterwards, her son Peter Phillips and his wife, Autumn, were also pictured leaving the family estate.
The pair were unable hide their smiles as they left the estate, where Zara is thought to be with husband Mike Tindall and their new daughter.
A spokesperson for Gloucestershire Royal Hospital yesterday confirmed Zara Phillips gave birth on an NHS ward.
She said: “Zara would have given birth in a room on her own and once it was established that mother and daughter were OK she would have been released.
“Most people leave here within six hours of giving birth as long as all is well. The only thing that can be paid for here is the after care.”
New mums who shared a maternity ward with Zara said the extra special arrival was kept quiet by midwives.
Vicky Love, 34, left the unit yesterday afternoon after the arrival of 9lbs 1oz son Isaac on Wednesday.
Housing charity worker Vicky said: “We didn’t see or hear anything. A lady in the bed next to me just said she heard today that Zara had been in the same ward as us .
“I had no idea. The staff did not say anything, and it seems as though she was treated the same as the rest of us.”
Dad Peter, 37, a wine merchant added: “It was all very normal – no armed guards, no police, nothing to suggest she was here.
“She didn’t go in and out the main entrance to the ward because nobody saw anything.”
The parents, of Hucclecote, Gloucestershire, who have another son Oscar, two, said sharing a ward with a Royal made the day even more special.
The ward at Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary is part of the Women’s Centre, and expectant mums share small rooms with three others.
Another mum who gave birth to a baby boy on Thursday said Zara must had a low-key delivery.
The mum, 27, said: “It is a brilliant maternity unit with amazing midwives who try to make everything as natural as possible, so she will have had a very calm delivery.
“There was no security or police around or anything special – everything seemed pretty normal.
“Being a new mum myself, I expect she feels the same as I do that it is a very private thing, so that’s probably why she kept it quite normal.”
