Egyptian man names daughter Facebook to mark revolt

LONDON - An Egyptian man has named his new daughter Facebook to mark his country’s recent revolution.

Jamal Ibrahim, who is in his 20s, named his daughter after the social networking site because he was so happy with the role played by the site in organising protests in Egyptian cities, Daily Mail reported Sunday citing the Al-Ahram newspaper.

The girl’s full name is Facebook Jamal Ibrahim and her family and their friends and neighbrous are reported to have gathered around the newborn, expressing their continued support for the revolution they say started on Facebook.

In Egypt there are five million Facebook users - more than any other country in the Middle East and that number rocketed over the last month as the revolution got underway, according to the Mail.

There were 32,000 groups and 14,000 pages created after the Jan 25 revolution. The military government has also started using Facebook to try and reach out to Egyptian youth.

Following President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, graffiti was daubed across the capital saying ‘Thank you Facebook’.

One internet blogger said: “The internet as a whole should win the Nobel Peace Prize this year for all it’s done for democracy in the Middle East/North African region, but let’s not let this naming kids get out of hand.

“I’d hate for little Facebook to have to share a classroom with a little AOL, or worse a little Yahoo!” the Mail quoted the blogger as saying.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the social networking site, has been thanked publicly by Egyptians.