Zooey Deschanel reveals her baby girl’s name, brought to you in part by the animal kingdom

Zooey Deschanel and husband Jacob Pechenik have shared their baby girl’s name, and it’s pretty high on the celebrity quirk scale, but in a really cute way.

The winning moniker: Elsie Otter.

“Like the animal,” the “New Girl” star told People at the “Rock the Kasbah” premiere Monday night in New York. Pechenik, who tied the knot with his lady around the time Elsie was born, helped paint a more specific picture: “Sea otter!”

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Of course it’s Elsie Otter. Because it’s Zooey Deschanel, and we wouldn’t expect anything less.

The 35-year-old new mom -- her daughter was born in Austin, Texas, in late July -- continued the riff on the “Today” show Tuesday after the exuberant panel of co-hosts couldn’t get her to spill many details on what it was like to film “Kasbah” with Bill Murray.

“We just really liked the name Elsie and we both really love otters,” Deschanel said, not taking herself too seriously. “They’re sweet and they’re also smart. They use tools, and they keep their favorite tools. They hold hands while they sleep. There’s so many things about otters -- they’re wonderful animals.”

If you ignore the part where they’re rapists and murderers, yes. (Don’t click that link, incidentally, if you want your romantic otter fantasies to remain pristine.) But they’re otters, for Pete’s sake, so it’s all good. Go otters!

Now, if you’re sort of feeling lulled into the “Zooey is simply adorkable” stereotype at this point, take a second to read this story about how her HelloGiggles media startup just sold to Time Inc. for millions. How’s that for cute? Yup, she founded the female-focused, news-ish online community in 2011 with “2 Broke Girls” writer Molly McAleer and producer-novelist Sophia Rossi. Take that, Blake Lively.

“Rock the Kasbah” arrives in theaters Friday.

Follow Christie D’Zurilla on Twitter @theCDZ and Google+. Follow the Ministry of Gossip on Twitter @LATcelebs.