David de Gea and Edurne welcome new baby daughter

GOALKEEPER David de Gea and Eurovision singer Edurne have announced the birth of their first child, a little girl called Yanay.

Mum Edurne, 35, works as a TV presenter and singer in her native Madrid, whilst De Gea, 29, plays for Manchester United, but practically every moment Edurne is not working is spent in the north-west of England with the father of her brand-new daughter.

Yanay is the first child for both parents, not just for the couple, who have been together for over a decade.

Although football fans of many nationalities will probably know De Gea's name already, outside of Spain it is mainly Eurovision Song Contest followers who will recognise Edurne – as the candidate for her country in 2015.

Despite being one of a long string of already-established professional pop artists with quality entry tracks, Edurne's Amanecer ('Sunrise') came a disappointing 21st, albeit no worse than most of Spain's other results for the last 25 years.

But the fact she has over 1.7 million followers on Instagram means she must be doing something right – especially given the flood of messages she has been receiving since news of her pregnancy broke in early November.

Constant updates to keep her fans and the media informed have always been met with warm-hearted comments from her followers, especially the last one before Yanay's birth – a picture of herself feeling fit to burst with the caption, “In this photo, there's one very impatient person and one very calm person.”

The 'calm' person was probably Yanay, given how Edurne had been talking about how long the last weeks of her pregnancy were starting to feel.

Now, having given no clue as to what names she and David had had in mind, Edurne confirmed their new-found parenthood on Instagram with a picture of the baby's hand next to a blanket with 'Yanay' stitched onto it in pink.

Her palindromic name and date of birth – March 4, 2021 – are the only comments in the caption.

Naturally, fans and reporters have been asking the couple where their choice of name comes from.

'Yanay' is a name with its origins in Quechua, one of the most widely-spoken indigenous languages in the Andean countries – along with Aymara – and its literally meaning is 'my beloved', in the feminine.

Its use is said to date back to the Incan empire and it is most commonly found in Perú.

The etymology, or root meaning, of 'Yanay' is 'sweet and gentle', in the female, someone who 'likes to help' and 'does not allow injustices or ill-treatment', who is friendly, and well-respected in her community.