Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son,
Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character
Christopher Robin. His toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for
Owl and
Rabbit, as well as the
Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the
Main Branch of the New York Public Library in
New York.
[2]
Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after
Winnie, a Canadian
black bear which he often saw at
London Zoo, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant
Harry Colebourn in
White River, Ontario, Canada, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnie" after his hometown in
Winnipeg, Manitoba. "Winnie" was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as
The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourne left Winnie at the London Zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there.
[3] Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in
When We Were Very Young.
In the first chapter of
Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh":
"But his arms were so stiff ... they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think — but I am not sure — that
that is why he is always called Pooh."
From wikipedia...
