Baby buzz is circulating around the globe as St. James’s Palace officially announced on Monday, Dec. 3 that Prince William and his wife, Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting a royal baby.

The royal couple, who wed on Apr. 29, 2011, have weathered rumors since their wedding day about the potential pregnancy. After nineteen months, the most talked about couple in the world is starting a family.

Speculations of a pregnancy arose as Kate was admitted to the King Edward VII Hospital in London to seek medical attention for hyperemesis gravidarum, a rare case of morning sickness.

It appears that Kate has not passed the 12-week mark in her pregnancy; however, people around the world are ecstatic about the news of a royal heir.

Carolyn Clark, a Yahoo! Trend Expert, reports “that searches on Yahoo! for ‘Kate Middleton pregnant’ are up 18,305% in the past day alone.”

As if surfing the web is not enough, bets on the heir’s gender and name have sparked internationally.  According to CBS News, “Mary and Victoria are leading the girl’s names with 8-1 odds, while John (8-1), Charles and George (both 10-1) are the best bets for boys.”

Whether the baby is a girl or a boy, the birth of the royal heir will be “only the second time in 1,000 years of English history that a reigning monarch, great-grandmother, Oueen Elizabeth II, would be alive at the same time as three generations of her future sovereign heirs,” according to USA Today.

For now, the world is awaiting the arrival of the next royal heir.

Margeaux Dittrich is the Arts & Entertainment Editor for The Spartan Speaks.