Kim and Kanye name third child Chicago West

US rapper Kanye West (L) and Kim Kardashian (R) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Gala benefit in New York on May 6, 2013. In this picture, Kim was pregnant with their first child.

What you need to know:

  • The Wests paid $45,000 (KSh 4,635,225) to the surrogate
  • Kardashian and West already have two children: daughter North, 4, and 2-year-old son Saint.
  • The couple chose to use a surrogate as Kardashian suffered from placenta accreta.

Kim Kardashian and rapper Kanye West have called their third child Chicago, opening the floodgates to hefty doses of mockery and consternation on social media.

Little Chicago was born via a surrogate on Monday weighing 7.6 pounds (3.3 kilograms).

Kardashian West announced the name on her app, later suggesting the little girl already has a nickname.

"North, Saint and Chi," she tweeted to her 58.4 million followers — to be pronounced "Shy" the 37-year-old later clarified.

The couple already have daughter North West, 4, and son, Saint, 2.

Kardashian and West, who married in a lavish ceremony in Italy in May 2014, have been dogged by rumours of trouble in paradise recently amid gossip-press speculation that their marriage is on the rocks.

Kardashian West ranks 47 on Forbes' celebrity 100 ranking of highest-paid entertainers with pre-tax earnings of $45.5 million.

Celebrity website TMZ said the couple chose a surrogate after Kardashian suffered from a serious condition in which the placenta becomes too deeply attached to the wall of the uterus during her second pregnancy, making a third pregnancy too risky.

TMZ said the couple paid the surrogate $45,000, banning her from smoking, taking drugs, hot baths, dying her hair and eating raw fish during the pregnancy.