Ryan Reynolds has defended calling his daughter James.

The Deadpool star, who is currently promoting the film, celebrated the arrival of his daughter with Blake Lively in December 2014.

The 39-year-old gave an interview on Friday with Good Morning Britain, explaining why he and Lively chose the name.

He said they decided to pick the name after his father James, who died just after their daughter was born.

Reynolds added: “In the spectrum of weird celebrity baby names, I feel like we’re not really breaking any new ground here … I mean, I didn’t call her Summer Squash Meadow Lark or something,” he said.

“I also thought of all the letters being silent in her name, so it would just be ‘Haa,'” he continued, joking.

The couple married in 2012, and in March, he joked that the couple had named the child Butternut Summer Squash.

Reynolds plays the pansexual Marvel anti-hero Deadpool in the film of the same name, set for release this month.

The upcoming movie is being produced by 20th Century Fox, but will share a Universe with the X-Men films.

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe – which features Iron Man, Thor and Captain America – has recently featured its first gay characters – in TV series Jessica Jones and Agents of SHIELD.

Arrow star John Barrowman previously called for more gay superheroes on TV.