Winnie The Pooh?

Question

Why Is Winnie the Pooh called Winnie the POOH? Why Pooh? Where did it come from? Does it relate to actual Poo? Some please help this has been driving my work colleagues mad!!

Answer 1

History: the answer:
During the first World War troops from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada) were being transported to eastern Canada, on their way overseas to Europe where they should join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade. When the train stopped at White River, Ontario, a lieutenant called Harry Colebourn bought a small female black bear cub for $20 from a hunter who had killed its mother. He named her 'Winnipeg', after his hometown of Winnipeg, or 'Winnie' for short.

Winnie became the mascot of the Brigade and went to Britain with the unit. When the Brigade was posted to the battlefields of France, Lt. Colebourn took Winnie to the London Zoo for a long loan. Formally Colebourn presented the London Zoo with Winnie in December 1919 where it became a popular attraction and lived until 1934.

The bear was also very popular by Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favorite at the zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.... Winnie the Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear). The name of Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in a poem from Milne's When We Were Very Young.

A.A. Milne started to write a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son Christopher Robin, and their friends at 100-Aker-Wood. These other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo were also based on stuffed animals belonging to Christopher Robin. Other characters as Rabbit and Owl were based on animals that lived, just like the swan Pooh, in the surrounding area of Milne's country home Cotchford Farm in Ashdown Forest, Sussex, on which 100-Aker-wood was based.

'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published by Methuen on October 14th, 1926, the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner' in1928. All these books were illustrated in a beautiful way by E.H. Shepard, which made the books even more magical. The Pooh-books became firm favourites with old and young alike and have been translated into almost every known language. A conservative figure for the total sales of the four Methuen editions (including When We Were Very Young) up to the end of 1996 would be over 20 million copies. These figures do not include sales of the four books published by Dutton in Canada and the States, nor the foreign-language editions printed in more than 25 languages the world over!

The Pooh-books had also been favourites of Walt Disney's daughters and it inspired Disney to bring Pooh to film in 1966. In 1977 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the first feature-length animated film of Pooh was released. In 1993, the Walt Disney Company acknowledged that Pooh Bear is second only to Mickey Mouse in their portfolio of the most-loved and trusted characters known to millions of people all the world over. By 1996, after the second release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the Bear of Very Little Brain had proved to be more popular than any other Disney character. In 1997, thirty years after the release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', Disney released 'Pooh's Grand Adventure', picking up where Disney's 22nd Masterpiece left off.

Answer 2

Edward 'Winnie-the-Pooh' Bear, sometimes referred to as Pooh, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. He appears in the books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh in the children’s poetry books When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

The hyphen was later dropped when Walt Disney Productions adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Winnie the Pooh featurettes which became one of the company's most successful franchises worldwide.

The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, notably including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the first foreign-language book to be featured on the New York Times Bestseller List

Answer 3

My Dad used to sit and read me Winnie the Pooh stories at night. Winnie the Pooh is the best!

Answer 4

Not strictly an answer to your question but maybe you could be interested. I live in Thailand and here they call Winnie the Pooh, Mee Pooh. Mee being Thai for bear so it is Pooh Bear and not even Winnie at all.

Answer 5

The bear was also very popular with Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne. It was his favourite animal at the Zoo, and he often spent time inside the cage with it. The bear was Christopher Robin's inspiration for calling his own teddy bear Winnie.....Winnie the Pooh (this teddy bear started out with the name of Edward Bear). The name Pooh originally belonged to a swan, as can be seen in the introduction of Milne's 'When We Were Very Young'.

Answer 6

Okay, this is straight from the wiki, but it does answer the question:

Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a toy 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, who were probably based on real animals, and the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Donnell Library Center Central Children's Room in New York.[1]

Christopher Milne had named his toy after Winnipeg, a bear which he and his father often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh," a swan they had met while on holiday. The bear, called "Winnie," was known as a gentle bear who never attacked anyone, and she was much loved for her playfulness. This is exactly what inspired Milne to write about Pooh Bear.[2] Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.

Answer 7

Apparently the original 'Winnie' was a bear cub who was some sort of mascot for the Canadians during WWI. And when Christopher Robin (the real-life version) got a teddy bear, he called it Winnie the Pooh - the name Pooh originally belonged to a swan from one of his father's books.

(Wow, i can't believe I answered that seriously...)

Answer 8

I don't think they have a history on winnie the pooh.

Answer 9

I dont know. But isnt it odd that he wears a top, but no pants! Especially in this weather.

Answer 10

Read the book! It is explained precisely!