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Eva Mendes on baby’s ‘Hunchback’ name, her ‘wild nights’ as a new mom

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Eva Mendes says she and beau Ryan Gosling drew their baby girl’s name from literature.

“The Place Beyond the Pines” actress, who welcomed daughter Esmeralda Amada in September, confirmed to her longtime pal Violet Grey of the Violet Files that she and Gosling chose the name because of their love of the stunning gypsy dancer in “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

“Ryan and I both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ and we just think it’s a beautiful name,” the 40-year-old said.

Hey, at least it wasn’t Quasimodo.

“Amada was my grandmother’s name. It means ‘beloved’ in Spanish,” the Cuban-born actress added, shutting down earlier speculation that the baby girl’s middle name was inspired by the actress’ character in the 2007 movie “We Own the Night.”

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A postpartum Mendes plays the noir seductress in the Violet Files’ black-and-white photo treatment. She claims she was “exhausted” during the shoot and says that’s probably why she appears so calm in the spread.

“I thought my wild nights were over, but these are some of the wildest nights I’ve ever had,” she said of becoming a first-time mom. She joked that “motherhood is cake compared to what it’s like to be a baby.”

The ultra-private couple has been linked since 2011 and kept especially mum about the child and even Mendes’ pregnancy -- and that was their plan all along.

“Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it’s unfair, but that’s our reality,” she said. “Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that …

“I find the media’s ‘bump watch’ obsession to be both intrusive and stressful. So I made a decision to eject myself from it completely. I was like, ‘Annnnd I’m out.’”

EEEE-jected. Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.

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