They say it wasn't a publicity stunt. But the news that an Israeli couple named their baby girl after Facebook's "Like" button is drawing plenty of criticism on Mashable, which spotted the item at the Hebrew-language Israeli news site Galgaletz earlier this week.Lior and Vardit Adler wanted to call their daughter "something unique," according to Mashable's Brenna Ehrlich. Given newer developments at Facebook, one wonders if the Adlers' next child may be named "Send."
Here's another option for any new parents less enthralled with the ubiquitous social network's recent embarrassment over a PR campaign to discredit rival Google: "Smear."
Naming a child after a something associated with a corporation isn't exactly a new thing—though whenever it happens, groans can be heard across the Internet.
Back in February, an Egyptian couple went the distance and named their daughter "Facebook."
Other parents have found ways to pay homage to corporate brands without saddling their children with so clunky a name. Even Like Adler can at least take solace that her first name seems like it could stand on its own, regardless of its original intention.
There's also the option of giving the child a more traditional first name and using the middle name as a repository for one's peculiar loyalty to a faceless multinational. That's what one Swedish couple did a a few years back when they named their son Oliver Google Kai.
NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson was even more subtle. His daughter Genevieve Marie just has the initials "GM" — as in "General Motors." Johnson's No. 48 car is a Chevy Impala, naturally.
Speaking of celebrities, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin have a daughter named Apple, but there doesn't seem to be a connection to the company that makes Macs, iPhones and iPads.
The same could be said about any child named "Mac" for that matter. It might be an unusual moniker, but along with "Cisco" and "Norton" it's a name one could stealthily use to honor a tech company without giving away the game.
Finally, there's the little Romanian girl named Yahoo!, whose parents supposedly named her after the company out of "gratitude for meeting over the Internet," according to Bucharest's Daily Libertatea newspaper.