Alan A Milne 
Winnie-the-Pooh 

A. A. Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son,  Christopher Robin Milne, on whom the character Christopher Robin was based. The rest of Christopher Milne’s toys - Piglet,  Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, and Tigger - were incorporated into Milne’s stories. Two more characters,  Owl and Rabbit, were created by Milne’s imagination, while Gopher was added to the Disney version. Christopher Robin’s toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City.

Christopher Milne had named his toy bear after Winnie, a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo, and Pooh, a swan they had encountered while on holiday. The bear cub was purchased from a hunter for C$20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, while en route to England during the First World War. He named the bear Winnie after his adopted hometown in Winnipeg,  Manitoba. Winnie was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as The Fort Garry Horse regimental mascot. Colebourn 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. Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.