4 internet-inspired baby names

With names like Hashtag and Facebook, these kids have been definitively marked as children of the 21st century

One proud father in Egypt hailed social media's role in the revolution by naming his newborn daughter (not pictured) "Facebook."
(Image credit: uncommonlycute.com)

1. The American girl named Hashtag

Last Saturday, a couple gave birth to a baby girl whom, in an homage to Twitter, they reportedly named Hashtag. "Hashtag will likely grow up to be a happy, healthy, beautiful adult woman, but we can't help but think she's going to face a great deal of scrutiny and teasing on the grade-school playgrounds," says Chase Hoffberger at The Daily Dot. Do you think they'll call her Tag for short?

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In 2005, a search-engine marketer and avid fan of all things Google wrote the company to alert them to the birth of his first child, Oliver Google Kai. "When we first knew that my wife Carol is pregnant, I said, 'we will name our child Google,'" the elder Kai wrote in his letter. Surprisingly, his wife agreed to the name, since she "knows how much I adore Google services." Google responded by wishing the young boy "long life and good health," adding that they hope Oliver Google Kai's "schoolmates aren't too hard on him."

3. The Egyptian girl named Facebook

During the Arab Spring in early 2011, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media tools were instrumental in igniting protests and spurring the revolution that eventually toppled President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. As a way of giving thanks, an Egyptian family chose to name their child Facebook to express "gratitude about the victories the youth of 25 January [when the revolution began] have achieved."

4. The Israeli girl named Like

Taking "inspiration from Mark Zuckerberg's own baby," says Eric Mack at CNET, an Israeli couple decided to name their baby girl Like. But when asked why they chose the name, Like Adler's father, Lior Adler, insisted that the name wasn't part of any marketing ploy, saying that he simply wanted to give his daughter a unique name... and that his wife liked it.

Sources: CNET (2), The Daily Dot, Google's Official Blog

Samantha Rollins is TheWeek.com's news editor. She has previously worked for The New York Times and TIME and is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.