Vin Diesel Names Daughter After Late 'Fast & Furious' Co-Star

Mar 24, 2015 12:59 PM EDT | Matt Mercuro

"Fast & Furious" star Vin Diesel decided to honor his late friend Paul Walker by naming his newborn daughter after him.

During an interview on "The Today Show," the 47-year-old actor revealed that he named his daughter Pauline after Walker, who he called his "brother."

"He was in the room. There's no other person that I'm thinking about as I'm cutting this umbilical cord," Diesel said to Today's Natalie Morales. "I knew he was there and I felt like, you know, a way to keep his memory a part of my memory, a part of my world."

Diesel and his girlfriend, Paloma Jimenez, announced the arrival of their third child together back on March 16, according to ET Online.

So why was Walker on Diesel's mind exactly? Seven years ago, before Jimenez gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Hania, Walker offered Diesel offered some strong advice.

"I might never have gone into a delivery room if it wasn't for Paul," Diesel told The Associated Press on Monday. "Paul (told) me to go into the delivery room and own it and be present and don't shy away from it and cut the umbilical cord. I didn't even know what an umbilical cord was!"

"Seven years later, going into the same delivery room, I couldn't help but to have my brain go back and reflect about the best piece of advice that anyone ever gave me," he added.

Walker was killed on Nov. 30, 2013 in a fatal car crash that also involved racecar driver Rodger Rodas. Walker was riding as a passenger in a Porsche Carrera GT that struck a light pole while on break from filming the next "Fast & Furious" film.

A coroner's report said the vehicle was traveling at more than 100mph, which caused Rodas to lose control of the vehicle.

Walker stared with Diesel in five of the seven "Fast & Furious" films, which have made $2.4 billion.

Universal decided to go ahead with filming "Furious 7" by using Walker's brothers Caleb and Cody to finish his scenes.

"Furious 7" is set to be released on April 3 and also stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson and Luke Evans. The movie is dedicated to Walker.

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