IF TV comedian Mark Lee had his way, his long-awaited daughter would have been named Love.

She was born at 1pm at Gleneagles Hospital yesterday, weighing in at3.2kg.

Daddy Mark explained: 'If anyone asks, 'What's your name?', she'd say, 'I'm Love Lee.'

'Lovely?'

'Yes, I'm Love Lee'.'

Well, then his daughter would have surely joined the ranks of celebrity offspring with unusual names, like Nicole Kidman's newborn Sunday Rose, and Gwyneth Paltrow's Apple.

But Mark, 40, said his family and friends all objected to it.

'No one else would vote for it,' he lamented.

His wife Catherine, 35, said: 'No way! Does he want to get her killed? People will laugh at her.'

In the end, the couple decided on Calista, which means 'most beautiful' in Greek.

As it turns out, their newborn is a pretty sight to behold.

'She's definitely my daughter, so beautiful,' gushed the proud father.

'But if she grows up like this (he points to his own face), not lovely anymore. Even the doctor said it would be tragic if she looks like me.'

Like daddy, Calista has long limbs.

And like mummy, she has delicate features.

The doctor also noticed she has dimples - much to Mark's dismay at first as he heard it wrongly.

'I was like, 'Pimples? Like me? How come?' exclaimed the acne-plagued father.

Turning serious, Mark admitted that he shed tears of joy when Calista was born, and that he cut her umbilical cord himself.

He insisted his hands were not shaking, but joked that 'I was scared of cutting the doctor's fingers by mistake'.

Catherine was admitted to the hospital on Sunday, which was the baby's due date, and labour induced yesterday.

Mark said she 'pushed just 25 minutes' to get their baby out, which is considered a fast birth.

He credits it to the walking she did when they travelled in Europe for a month around May.

He was there to film a variety show and she joined him.

The first celebrity visitor was Zoe Tay, who arrived before 1pm with her pilot husband Philip Chionh.

Vivian Lai popped by next, followed by Jin Yin Ji and Huang Shinan with wife Pan Lingling.

Incidentally, Zoe is also the new parents' 'fairy godmother'.

Mark and Catherine had tried all kinds of methods to conceive for eight years since their marriage, and they succeeded only last year after sitting on Zoe's bed, following her second childbirth.

According to an old wives' tale, sitting on the bed of a woman who has just delivered a baby and eating vermicelli, red eggs and pig's liver would help a woman get pregnant.

Somehow it worked, and Mark has found the past nine months to be a 'very amazing' journey towards parenthood.

He reckons he'll be a hands-on father, but joked he might get lazy after two weeks of baby care.

'I'll dote on her, but I won't spoil her. I'll educate her with love... and beat her if need be.'