Winnie the Pooh Fun Facts

Winnie the Pooh is perhaps one of the most beloved fictional characters of all time. Most everyone is familiar with the lovable bear Winnie, gloomy donkey Eeyore, and bouncy tiger Tigger. The characters have spoken to children (and adults!) for generations and continue in their popularity. Here are some of the most interesting and little known facts about Winnie the Pooh and his friends.

The Top 9 Winnie the Pooh fun Facts

Winnie was based on a real-life bear

Winnie the Pooh was named after a real-life bear named Winnie living in the London zoo. Author A.A. Milne’s son Christopher Robin named his new stuffed animal after her after a visit to the London zoo.

Winnie was Originally a Girl

The real-life Winnie bear was a girl! There is a wonderful Caldecott award-winning book called Finding Winnie all about the black bear cub’s rescue by veterinarian Harry Colebourn and her life at the zoo. The book is authored by Lindsay Mattick, Colebourn’s great-granddaughter.

Finding Winnie award winning childrens book

Winnie has a star on the Hollywood walk of fame

In 2006 Winnie the Pooh was inducted into the Hollywood walk of fame with a star of his own. He is one of a handful of animated characters who have a star, including Mickey Mouse, the Muppets, and Shrek.

Winnie is fluent in latin?

Winnie Ille Pu, the Latin translation of Winnie the Pooh, is the only Latin language book to appear on the New York Times bestselling list – and stay there for 20 weeks! The Times called it “the greatest book a dead language has ever known.”

Winnie-the-Pooh or Winnie the pooh?

In the original books, Winnie’s official name was Winnie-the-Pooh, but when Disney acquired the book rights in 1961 they changed it to the more popular hyphen-less Winnie the Pooh.

Does Winnie have a last name?

Despite popular belief, Winnie’s last name is not Sanders. Mr. Sanders is written on the sign over the door of Winnie’s house, but according to the books “he had the name over the door in gold letters and Pooh lived under it.” Pooh experts believe this means that the previous resident was named Mr. Sanders and Winnie has yet to update his sign.

You can Visit the Original Pooh and Friends!

The Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, and Roo characters were all inspired by Christopher Robin’s real-life stuffed animals. Rabbit and Owl were added to the books to round out the gang. You can visit all the original stuffed animals at the New York Library (except for little Roo, who was lost).

winnie the pooh original stuffed animals

Winnie the Pooh has his own Street signs

The Pooh bear has become so popular worldwide that he has street signs names after him in Warsaw and Budapest!

Winnie was a banned book

And for our last fact, and probably the oddest one: In 2003, Winnie the Pooh, along with Charlotte’s Web, was briefly banned in some U.K. public schools for fear that Muslim children would be offended by a talking pig. Fortunately, the ban was removed quickly when the Muslim Council of Britain requested an end to the “well-intentioned but misguided policy.”

For more behind-the-scenes Winnie the Pooh fun facts check out The Real Winnie the Pooh from a Grandmother’s Library Shelf. As always, thanks for reading!