Beckhams named newborn after author Harper Lee

London: David Beckham says there was a literal reason behind naming his newborn daughter Harper Seven.

According to the soccer ace, the unusual name is an amalgamation of Harper Lee, the author of his wife Victoria`s favourite book "To Kill A Mocking Bird", and his own former shirt number `seven`. Dismissing speculation that they named Harper Seven after a character from Disney TV show "Wizards Of Waverly Place" or even Harper`s Bazaar magazine, he explained: "A lot of thought goes into our children`s names and Harper was a name that we`ve loved for a long time for a couple of reasons. "One reason is Harper`s an old English name which we loved and one of the other reasons was Victoria`s favourite book is `To Kill A Mocking Bird` and the author was Harper Lee. It`s a very strong, passionate book. That`s where Harper came from." The footballer went on to admit that his former shirt number seven, while he played for Manchester United and England, had also played a strong part in them choosing Seven as a middle name for the newborn, reports thesun.co.uk. "And then Seven you know, a lot of people have assumed its just because of my shirt number that I wore for many years and part of it is because I had so much luck around wearing that number, wearing it for England, wearing it for Manchester United. It was such an influential number throughout my career and a lucky number... but that wasn`t the main reason. "So we love the name, we love Harper Seven. We`re very proud of having her in our lives and in our family and it`s an amazing time for our family right now," added the proud father. IANS