back to article Egyptian bloke dubs sprog 'Facebook'

A young Egyptian dad has dubbed his newborn daughter "Facebook" in honour of the role the social network played in deposing Hosni Mubarak. The unnamed man, in his 20s, condemned his poor sprog to a lifetime of ridicule "to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth", as local paper al-Ahram put it. …

COMMENTS

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  1. James 127
    IT Angle

    This guy needs to be careful.....

    .....that Facebook.com doesn't sue him!

    1. Elmer Phud

      Or worse

      Facebook could use her for publicity and her dad only gets Facebook credits in return.

  2. MHZawadi

    With her Brother....

    So will her sibling be called twitter?

  3. Jon Double Nice
    Coat

    Do they have a ginger step-sibling

    called MySpace?

  4. Sil_W
    FAIL

    Blithering idiot

    As pointed out, this child is going to have to live with this abject humiliation until she's old enough to change it (and there I only assume Egyptian law allows deed-poll-type changes). Not only that, but as far as I can tell he's completely missing the important element of the revolution.

    I admit quite freely I wasn't there; I don't know anyone who was there. My knowledge of the situation is limited to what the western press chose to tell me about it. And maybe the point is that Facebook (the social network) enabled people to get around press restrictions and media biases and so on. But as far as I can tell, the fact that the Egyptian revolution happened at all, and that it was relatively bloodless as these things go, is tribute to the courage of the people and the common sense (so far) of the military in refusing to do what Libya's are allegedly doing.

    To imply that the whole thing was enabled by bloody Facebook is to detract from the achievement of the Egyptian people. If the Egyptians themselves disagree with that then I can't really argue with them, but I will still believe they're selling themselves short.

    Plus, if Facebook (the site) continues as it is, Facebook (the person) is presumably going to have to grow up dealing with "I'm on Facebook"; "all my friends are on Facebook"; and so on...

    People just don't think sometimes.

    1. The Indomitable Gall

      On Facebook?

      "Plus, if Facebook (the site) continues as it is, Facebook (the person) is presumably going to have to grow up dealing with "I'm on Facebook"; "all my friends are on Facebook"; and so on..."

      Well, considering that these puns work in English, and Egypt isn't an English-speaking country...

      People just don't think sometimes.

      1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

        Re: On Facebook?

        Blithering idioms.

        1. Sil_W
          Thumb Up

          @ Sarah

          "Blithering idioms"

          Now *that* was worthwhile. :o)

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm on Facebook etc

        For all I know it could be worse. Maybe the direct translation would be more like "I'm in Facebook." Maybe you "enter Facebook." Maybe they sail the Internet there.

        God bless Facebook ...

      3. Sil_W

        Overestimation

        Matter of fact, and aware that I can't prove this, I did spend a good few minutes wondering about whether to cover this point. Given that Egyptians primarily speak Arabic, I did consider that the colloquialisms might not work the same in Arabic, or even Egyptian English (that's English, incidentally, as it's "widely understood by educated classes" in Egypt - at least according to the CIA).

        In the end I decided I probably didn't. That bit was a throwaway joke secondary to my main point, and besides, I reasoned, Reg readers are clever techie types. They'll work it out for themselves.

        *sigh*

  5. Efros

    How to

    Make your sprog hate you with a passion for the rest of their life.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    The conversations in that house...

    "Facebook, for god's sake give LinkedIn his toys back, MySpace stop whinging, and for crying out loud, MoneySupermarket.com, stop playing with those Z-List celebrity dolls and go to bed!"

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why?

    What about calling your kids "sewerage" in recognition of how sewers helped mitigate cholera outbreaks? Or "manure" in recognition of how fertilisers helped boosting agriculture? Or "moron" in recognition of where the sperm comes from?

    1. LaeMing

      Susan Ridge is a real name

      And she revuses to let her first name be shortened.

      To be fair on her parents, it is a married name. Why she didn't hyphenate is beyond me!

  8. IsJustabloke
    Stop

    I refuse to enoble a simple forum post!

    Hopefully, she'll have a nice normal middle name to use instead.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not much joy there for westerners

      Her middle name will be "Bint".

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    The guy is an idiot.

    Everyone knows Facebook is a boys name.

  10. Jemma
    WTF?

    ...note to future therapist...

    Monkey Dust, saying it so I dont have to...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp5YIk49EOM

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WXM_qCJFBg

    I feel so so sorry for that kid

    1. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: ...note to future therapist...

      Yeah, but you'd feel sorrier if she was growing up under Mubarak, no?

      1. Jemma
        Paris Hilton

        ...on balance...

        Probably not - the only thing thats changed after all is the government, shes still female, so she'll still have all the usual abuses and lack of rights to deal with - and we are assuming that Mubarak is gone for good, and history shows us that things out there can take unusual turns... if Mubarak, or more likely Mubarak sympathizers get back into power...

        Hmm.. and then theres your fundamentalist Muslims who hate anything to do with the west.. and think women are there to be owned/raped/hanged/shot every time there is an R in the month... so theres a double whammy for this poor girl again...

        Its not really any different, or any more wise, that a person in Prague in Feb 1968 calling their kid Dubcek or calling them Facebook now.... it puts both the kid and the family in danger because it outs them as supporters of Dubcek or the revolution movement in Egypt respectively... and we know what happened in Prague.

        And, then we have Libya - who decided it was a great idea to loose Mirage II fighter/bombers on their own people, who's to say they wont sort out their own little uprising and then send their militia over to Egypt - Facebook; meet AK-47...

    2. LaeMing
      Coat

      Youtube

      That would be her cousin?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    a Title

    No dafter than some other names I've heard. Though I must say that after hearing of the Child's name I could almost come to terms with my own.

    Congratulations to the parents.

    Now, you must excuse me, I'm off with my Hula to Hawaii. I'll send you a post card.

    Yours

    Nigel

  12. Studley

    "I'd poke her"

    ...is a phrase she will grow to detest.

  13. War Monger

    Funny that the father is unnamed

    It's probably something like "Betamax".

  14. LaeMing

    There is always the chance that...

    ...by the time she hits upper-school, FaceBook (the site) will be gone and forgotten. Replaced by somethiny even more narcistic.

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