Eva Mendes named her daughter Esmerelda after 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame's heroine.

Eva, 41 and her partner Ryan Gosling, 34, recently celebrated Esmerelda's first birthday and Eva revealed that they chose the name because they love the story based on the novel by Victor Hugo.

Speaking on the 'Wendy Williams Show', Eva said: ''We love 'Hunchback of Notre Dame', we loved the name, the cartoon and the novel, you know it just kind kept coming back to us.

''It's actually a very popular Latin name so it's easy for my father and certain family members that still don't speak English to pronounce. That was a good selling point.''

Eva also revealed that she and Ryan don't have a nanny and her family have been helping out with Esmerelda.

She said: ''I've never appreciated my family so much, they've been amazing. I don't technically have a nanny, but I do have help. I'd like to clarify. I'm certainly not anti-nanny, you do what you need to do as a parent, but I'm so grateful that I have help with my family and his family.''

And when asked if Eva felt pressure to lose weight after giving birth, she said: ''No, I feel like we can be really hard on each other. That whole term, 'bounce back' after pregnancy. I don't know, I don't like that terminology. Look, if you go into the bikini two weeks after, good for you, but that wasn't me. I just feel like we as women need to support each other more.''