Egyptian Father Names Daughter ‘Facebook’… Yeah, For Real

Talk about gratitude.

According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram, a twentysomething father has named his newborn daughter ‘Facebook’ to pay homage to the role Facebook (like, real Facebook) played in the recent Egyptian revolution.  No, really. This is a thing.

According to TechCrunch, the translation is as follows:

A young man in his twenties wanted to express his gratitude about the victories the youth of 25th of January have achieved and chose to express it in the form of naming his firstborn girl “Facebook” Jamal Ibrahim (his name.) The girl’s family, friends, and neighbors in the Ibrahimya region gathered around the new born to express their continuing support for the revolution that started on Facebook. “Facebook” received many gifts from the youth who were overjoyed by her arrival and the new name. A name [Facebook] that shocked the entire world.

And to think, five-ish years ago, every boy was named Caleb, and we thought that was strange. Not that naming one’s offspring ‘Facebook’ is that strange, considering the circumstances. Egypt has five million Facebook users, a figure much higher than anywhere else in the Middle East – and even then, according to the social network, there has been a large spike in the last month, following the revolution. Needless to say, ‘Facebook’ may well soon be to Egypt what ‘Jennifer’ or ‘Amanda’ is to America.

And who knows? Maybe this will set off a naming trend enveloping other influential tech companies, too. ‘How are the kids? Oh, Apple’s fine, he just turned five. Hewlett and Packard are still fighting, I just don’t know what to do with them! What’s that? Skype? She’s off to college. She’s going to become a doctor, you know.’