LONDON — Thursday is Winnie the Pooh Day, in honor of the birthday of author A.A. Milne.

Did you know the original Winnie the Pooh was actually a girl? Some Pooh trivia in honor of the world’s most loveable pudgy bear.

Winnie was a girl

“Finding Winnie: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Bear” tells the true story of female black bear cub named Winnie who inspired the classic children's character. According to WBUR, during World War I, Winnie was purchased by veterinarian Harry Coleburn, who named the cub after his home city of Winnipeg. Winnie became a mascot during Coleburn's months of battlefield training. When Coleburn was deployed to France,he placed Winnie in the London Zoo who cared for the bear through the rest of the war.

Author A.A. Milne came across Winnie with his son, Christopher Robin Milne (whose name would also be used in the children's books) at the zoo. Christopher named his own teddy bear after her. The two would become the inspiration for the characters of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin.

The second half of the name comes from a swan

Milne’s son Christopher named a swan "Pooh" as explained in his 1924 book, “When We Were Very Young.”

"This is a very fine name for a swan, because, if you call him and he doesn't come (which is a thing swans are good at), then you can pretend that you were just saying 'Pooh!' to show how little you wanted him," Milne wrote before the book.

The real-life Pooh would lend his name to a swan in that book and later to Winnie the Pooh.

Pooh made his debut in a newspaper

According to the BBC, Winnie the Pooh appeared in a story called "The Wrong Sort of Bees" appeared in the London Evening News on Dec. 24, 1925.

The stuffed bear Winnie is on display

Winnie's on display in the New York Public Library along with the rest of the toys that Christopher Robin played with that inspired Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Piglet and Kanga.