Ngozi holds her baby Nassir at the Toronto Zoo. (Toronto Zoo)

Charles has chosen — and his baby's name is Nassir.

Charles is a western lowland gorilla at the Toronto Zoo and on Wednesday morning he chose his son's new name by picking a plate filled with his favourite treats.

The zoo decided to have a naming contest for the baby gorilla and solicited names from the public.

They were inundated with thousands of name suggestions, then whittled that pile down to five: Nassir, Neo, Nico, Nigel or Nsambu.

Then came the idea to attach one name to each of five plates of special foods, each plate exactly the same.

Charles would then be invited to pick a plate of treats — and his son's new name at the same time.

On Wednesday morning, the proud daddy chose the plate with Nassir's name attached.

Nassir means protector.

The baby gorilla was born in September and has been a top attraction at the zoo ever since.

The name contest drew more than 5,000 suggestions. The only rule was that the name had to start with the letter N in honour of the baby's mother Ngozi.