I guess the King wanted to link Rafa's title name to something intimately related to the islands Rafa love so much... but that's just my guess.

LLevant is the Catalan word for Levant [Levante in ESP]. The word "levante" comes from the direction the sun rises from, that is, the East [and the Balearic islands are in the "Levante" area]. Levante's also the name of the wind that usually affects the Mediterranean regions.

Yes