Youngest member of Norway's royal family named Prince Sverre Magnus

The youngest member of Norway's royal family has been named Prince Sverre Magnus, the palace announced Monday. The prince was born in Oslo on Saturday to Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit, both 32. He is their second child and is third in line to the throne. The boy's grandparents are King Harald V and Queen Sonja. Haakon and Mette-Marit married in August 2001, and have a daughter, Ingrid Alexandra, born in January 2004, who is second in line to the throne after her father.

The crown princess was a single mother and commoner named Mette-Marit Tjessem-Hoiby when she married Haakon. Her son Marius, from a previous relationship, has no royal title or ascension rights.

The names Sverre and Magnus have long royal traditions in Norway as kings' names, and have been used by both sides of the young prince's family. Crown Prince Haakon's middle name is also Magnus.

A palace statement said King Harald had granted the infant the title of prince, but that he was not to be addressed as "his royal highness."

The royal birth coincided with centennial celebrations of Norway's gaining independence from Sweden in 1905, after a grudging 91-year union. Denmark had been forced to give Norway to Sweden in 1814, after being on the losing side of the Napoleonic wars.

Prince Sverre Magnus' great-grandfather was a Danish prince elected in November 1905 to become the first monarch of modern Norway, and ruled under the name Haakon VII.

The young prince was born Saturday morning, and weighed nearly 4 kilograms (8.6 pounds) and was 52 centimeters (20.8 inches) long. He went home with his parents to their royal estate near Oslo a few hours after his birth.

Even though Haakon has an older sister, Princess Martha, he is next in line to the throne under an old constitution that allowed only male monarchs. The law was changed in 1990, permitting the crown to be passed to the throne-holder's first child, male or female. But the law is not retroactive, so Haakon retains rights to the throne, reports the AP. I.L.