Egyptian father names his daughter “Facebook”

An Egyptian man has decided to show his appreciation towards social networking site "Facebook" for its role during the revolution in his country by naming his newborn daughter Facebook.

Giving the girl an unusual name, Jamal Ibrahim, thanked the Facebook, who has played an important role in organizing mass protests in Egypt.

Egyptian dictator Muhammad Hosni Sayyid Mubarak was in power from 1981 until February 11, 2011, when he resigned after 18 days of protests. Facebook has been credited for helping organize regime-ending protests in the country. Although the Egyptian revolution saw some planning done via Twitter, direct text messages, and other forms of electronic communication, Facebook has come to symbolize all the forms of social media that people used to organize the revolutions in the Middle East.


Out of the 79 million citizens in Egypt (September 2010 estimate), 5 million are on Facebook. The company itself has reported an increase in Egyptian users on its website, with 32,000 Facebook groups and 14,000 pages created in the two weeks after January 25 (the first day of revolutions).

Few days ago, the Egyptian army, which is currently running the country after Mubarak was ousted, launched Facebook Page to boost its image.

Gamal Ibrahim, a 20-something, gave his daughter the name “to express his joy at the achievements made by the January 25 youth,” according to a report in Al-Ahram, one of Egypt’s most popular newspapers.

Many young people used Facebook and other social media networks to organize the protests, which began January 25 and ultimately led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak after 30 years in power.

Wael Ghonim, a Google executive who organized a Facebook page on his own time, became a central figure of the revolution.