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Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge kept the world waiting three days before unveiling the name of their daughter - Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. 

And in true Twitter style, the social network saw a surge of traffic immediately after the announcement.  

The site has released a heatmap that shows how news of the name Charlotte spread across the world - starting with a cluster of tweets in the UK and America at 13.53GMT yesterday before posts were being made across the whole of western Europe, into South Asia and Africa.

Twitter has released a heatmap (pictured) that shows how news of the royal baby's name Charlotte spread across the world yesterday - starting with a cluster of tweets in the UK and America at 13.53GMT yesterday. The most tweets were posted in the UK and on the east coast of the US. There were also posts that made Hawaii and Mauritius glow pink on the heat map

The most tweets were posted in the UK and on the East coast of the US. There were also posts that made Hawaii and Mauritius glow pink on the heat map. 

The Princess of Cambridge, who is now fourth in line to the throne, was born on Saturday, weighing 8lb 3oz and Twitter said there have been more than one million tweets about the birth since the announcement was made. 

The peak in conversation came at 11:25am on Saturday with 4,500 tweets per minute, and more than 300,000 tweets mentioning 'Charlotte' were made following the name confirmation.  

During the past 24 hours there have been almost 92,000 tweets with the hashtag #royalbaby, according to figures from tracking tool Topsy, and in the past three hours there have been 3,417.

Hashtracking reveals that the majority of people posting about the baby are women - 61 per cent - and the highest proportion of tweets were sent in the US, at 23 per cent. 

Official updates about the baby are being tweeted by the @KensingtonRoyal handle.

The tweet announcing the birth on Saturday that read: 'Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge was safely delivered of a daughter at 8.34am' has been retweeted 47,220 times. 

A #welcometothefamily tweet posted by the Palace on Saturday afternoon that featured a photo of the baby has been retweeted more than 37,050 times and received more than 46,730 favourites.

And the tweet revealing the name, which read: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana' has been shared and favourited more than 92,980 times in total.   

Kate and William returned home to Kensington Palace less than 12 hours after the birth and are said to have sought the blessing of both the Queen and Prince Charles before announcing what they had decided to call their daughter.

Announcing the name, the couple's statement said: 'The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana. The baby will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge.' 

The name Charlotte is said to be a nod to her grandfather, the Prince of Wales, while Elizabeth and Diana are in honour of the Queen and Diana.

Other royals to have the name include the Queen Mother and the Duchess of Cambridge herself, who has it as her middle name.

Charlotte is also the middle name of Kate's sister Pippa Middleton and in French, it means 'petite' and 'feminine' or 'free man'.

In royal history, George IV named his only child Charlotte, but she died in childbirth at 21. George III's wife was Queen Charlotte, who was born 1744 and founded Kew Gardens. She used it instead of her given first name, Sophie.

The Princess of Cambridge (pictured), who is now fourth in line to the throne, was born on Saturday, weighing 8lb 3oz. The name Charlotte is said to be a nod to the baby's grandfather, the Prince of Wales. In French, the name means 'petite' and 'feminine' or 'free man'

During the past 24 hours there have been almost 92,000 tweets with the hashtag #royalbaby, according to figures from tracking tool Topsy, and in the past three hours there have been 3,417. Twitter said there have been more than one million tweets about the birth since Saturday. The peak in conversation came at 11:25am on Saturday with 4,500 tweets per minute

Official updates about the baby were tweeted by the @KensingtonRoyal handle. The tweet announcing the birth on Saturday (left) has been retweeted 47,220 times. And the tweet revealing the name (right) has been shared and favourited more than 92,980 times in total

According to the Office for National Statistics, Charlotte was the 21st most popular name for girls in England and Wales in 2013. Its popularity is expected to fall following the announcement.

For weeks, bookmakers had been saying Alice was the clear favourite. Following the birth, however, Charlotte and Alice were both competing to be favourite, while outsiders such as Olivia also attracted wagers.

A spokesman for Ladbrokes said the betting markets had been in 'total mayhem' with 20,000 individual wagers - some of which were six-figure sums - placed on the bet in the past two days. That equates to more bets than were put on the General Election. 

If the baby had been called Diana as a first name - which had odds of 10/1 - the UK booking industry would have had to have paid out £1 million to winning punters. 

Kate and William (pictured with the baby left and right) returned home to Kensington Palace less than 12 hours after the birth on Saturday and were said to have sought the blessing of both the Queen and Prince Charles before announcing what they had decided to call their daughter

Hashtracking reveals that the majority of people posting about the baby are women - 61 per cent - and the highest proportion of tweets were sent in the US, at 23 per cent (pictured)