Meet the Israeli parents who need a good poke.
Everybody likes babies. Some people like unique names. An Israeli couple likes both.
The couple decided not to wait for Facebook users to click on the “like” button when seeing photographs of their newborn baby girl. Instead, they pre-empted them by naming her: Like.
The most popular names for girls in Israel currently are Noa, Maya and Tamar.
But Lior and Vardit Adler, from Hod Hasharon, a town north-east of Tel Aviv, went a step further to ensure their child would not have namesakes in her classroom.
“To me it is important to give my children names that are not used anywhere else, at least not in Israel,” the father told the German Press Agency dpa on Monday.
The couple gave unique names to their first two children too, perhaps for their love of cooking: Dvash (honey in Hebrew) and Pie.
When they chose the name Like, the sound was at least as important as the meaning, explained Lior.
Like had a nice and international ring to it, he said, and Facebook had become the icon of today’s generation.
“If once people gave Biblical names and that was the icon, then today this is one of the most famous icons in the world,” he said, joking that the name could be seen as a modern version of the traditional Jewish name Ahuva, which means “beloved.”
Although his and his wife’s parents had expected an original name, the couple’s friends and acquaintances reacted incredulously. “They simply didn’t believe it,” said Lior.
“I believe there will be people who will lift a eyebrow,” he said, “but it is my girl and that’s what’s fun about it.”
Will one-week-old Like like her name too? Lior said he hoped so.
“By the way, I asked her, but she wouldn’t answer,” he laughed.
Perhaps when she’s older, Like will get a chance to meet her Egyptian counterpart Facebook.
Meanwhile, I think Lior himself should be given a new name: Twit.
Inspired by Twitter, of course.
