Baby named 'Hashtag' draws Internet fame, ire, skepticism
Meet the trending infant Hashtag Jameson.
The mother reportedly posted a of her sleeping baby girl on Facebook with the caption: 鈥淗ashtag Jameson was born at 10 oclock last nite. She weys 8pounds and i luv her so much!!!!!鈥�
On Twitter, people use hashtags (or the #聽symbol) to mark keywords and trending topics. They range from the general 鈥� people might add #obama to Twitter posts about the president 鈥� to the quirky and esoteric 鈥� such as聽聽from the finals weeks of the 2012 election.
This infant鈥檚 photo is now buzzing all over the web. However, it seems that no one can confirm her name. It鈥檚 unclear if 鈥淗ashtag鈥� is a legitimate name from a Twitter super fan, an Internet hoax, or, as the Huffington Post 聽it, "a very unfortunate typo."
Whatever the case, the photo in less than 24 hours after first appearing on the website Awkward Messages, which rounds up odd Web posts and photos.
As skepticism stewed online, many people took to Twitter to argue a聽parallel聽question: Is "Hashtag" an appropriate name for any baby? The conversation quickly adopted a hashtag of聽its own,聽#babyhashtag.
鈥淭hat poor girl is going to get made fun of for years to come... I'd go by my middle name instead!鈥� wrote Nicole Pipe, who goes by @TotallyTypeA on Twitter.聽(The photo, which is acting as an unofficial birth announcement to the world, doesn't say if Hashtag has a middle name.)
鈥淚 can see it now.聽聽a few years from now playing in a sand box with her friends 'Like,' 'PTAT,' 'Tweet,' 'Share,' and '@,' " wrote Twitter users @ParisMackey.
Funny you should say that, Paris. In May of 2011, an Israeli couple gave birth to "Like," named after the聽iconic Facebook button.
"I'm not worried about other children teasing Like," said Like鈥檚 mother,聽Vardit Adler, in an interview with Reuters. The couple's other daughters, "Dvash and Pie, don't seem to mind their special names and nobody teases them."
Another social-media baby was born in Egypt a few months earlier, 鈥�.鈥� The baby girl was named after the website that played a large role in Egypt鈥檚 January uprising in 2011.
Whether you think unique baby names are clever or ridiculous, research has shown baby names have long-lasting effects well into adulthood.
