IT'S one of the largest icebergs in the world, and now, thanks to a Winchester boy, it has a name.

Six-year-old Max Dolan beat 500 entrants to name the 101- mile long iceberg, currently positioned 1,600 miles to the southwest of New Zealand.

Judges said his choice, Melting Bob' - a reference to Sideshow Bob', a character in his favourite television programme, The Simpsons - was ideal because it represented a clever play on words.

The competition's organisers, the Scott Polar Research Institute at Cambridge University, will use the name as it tracks the iceberg for its estimated 10-year lifespan as it goes from its current size of 1,985 square miles to nothing.

Pia Dolan, who lives at Abbotts Barton, Winchester, said she entered her son into the competition after having a chat with him on the way home from school.

The 43-year-old, who has a fascination with cold climates, said: "We did have a conversation about icebergs and because he's a child we discussed that icebergs bob, float and move around.

"Melting Bob is a really simplistic idea - it just so happens it's got other meanings."

She said they were both delighted when they heard the news. She added: "I was really thrilled.

"He's the only one in the world who's named an iceberg, I thought oh my god'!

"I just keep thinking of all these scientists in the cold and dark, saying it's looking like Melting Bob's moving'!

"I hear Rowan Atkinson saying it too!"

Max, who attends St Bede CE Primary School, said he chose the name because icebergs "melt and bobble up and down in the waves".

He added: "It's so fantastic and I was so happy because I was going to be in the newspapers!

I'm so happy and proud of myself!"

As part of the win the sixyear- old will be able to track Bob's journey across the Southern Ocean by studying satellite images sent to him by the United States National Ice Centre, which follows all significant icebergs that break off from Antarctic glaciers.

Dame Jacqueline Wilson, a member of the judging panel for the contest, said: "It is wholly appropriate for an entity which, as Max points out, is both bobbing and melting.

"It also has a very friendly ring to it, which helps us to relate to it, making the iceberg seem more like a friend who we should look after."

Bob, previously known by its codename C19A, was created in May 2002 when it separated from The Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica.