<P> Hyphens in the character's name were dropped by Disney when the company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of features that became one of its most successful franchises . </P> <P> In popular film adaptations, Pooh Bear has been voiced by actors Sterling Holloway, Hal Smith, and Jim Cummings in English and Yevgeny Leonov in Russian . </P> <P> A.A. 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 . The rest of Christopher Robin 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 . </P> <P> 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 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 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 . </P>

Where did the name winnie the pooh come from