AFP is reporting out of Jerusalem that an Israeli couple has named their third child “Like,” in honor of the Facebook trademark.

The couple, Lior and Vardit Adler, were simply befuddled when it came to what they were going to call their newborn daughter. Inspiration came from the social media giant.

“We named her Like because it’s modern and innovative,” said father Lior Adler to the Israeli daily paper Maariv. “I checked that the name does not exist elsewhere in the country, that was the main condition for me,” he said.

“In our opinion it’s the modern equivalent of the name Ahava (Love). It’s just my way of saying to my fantastic daughter, ‘love.’”

The couple reportedly already has two other daughters named Pie and Vash, the latter being Hebrew for “honey.”

Back in February, following the unseating of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a man named his firstborn child “Facebook” in honor of the huge part the social network played in the January revolution and protests in Tahrir Square. Protesters were able to mobilize and spread the message through social media services like Facebook and Twitter.

Now before you run off and tell your friends about the absolutely insanity of naming your kid “Like,” let’s get some perspective. What about celebrity kid names in the West?

David Duchovny named his kid “kyd.” Jermaine Jackson named his child “Jermajesty.” Sly Stallone came up with “Sage Moonblood” for his offspring. U2 guitarist The Edge decided to call his daughter “Blue Angel.” Magician Penn Jillette named his little girl “Moxie CrimeFighter.”

Ok, Moxie CrimeFighter is awesome – I’ll admit that.

But seriously, people name their kids all kinds of things – especially foreign language words for things like love, faith and hope. Like the father said, Isn’t this just the social media way to say love?

At least this family had the guts to named their child something and stick by it. Remember that Facebook page that advertised naming a baby MEGATRON for 1,000,000 likes? Yeah, it has over 1,600,000. And they didn’t name the baby MEGATRON. They named it Dylan. Pfft.

So what do you think about baby “Like?” Better or worse than little baby “Tweet?”

England Sees Spike In Baby Girl Name Searches

That’s what Heather Hopkins at Hitwise says, anyway, on her way out the door for maternity leave.

Funny, all of my friends on this side of the Pond seem to be having boys. Sounds like England will be a wonderful place for them to visit in about 20 years.

The most popular baby name related search was the generic "baby names," which made up nearly 40 percent of all related searches last month.

"Unusual baby names" was quite a common search, too, second on the list with 2.97 percent, meaning that all you people trying to be clever are going to be the direct cause of a generation flooded with Balthazars.

Jason, you see, was still rather unusual in the Seventies and look what I have to put up with now. Thanks, Mom.

People also were on the hunt for Indian, Muslim, unique, and popular names (I imagine the smarter ilk are searching the popular and the unusual to know precisely what to avoid and then double checking to see if AubriannaTarragonJohnston.com* is available.)

Hopkins also reveals that among the most popular baby items were clothes, walkers, monitors, car seats and "prams," which, unlike how they sound, are not large shrimp, but rather baby buggies, or strollers, as one might call them Stateside.

*If this is an actual name, it is purely coincidental, and may God have mercy on your soul.

"One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available," a mother told the Associated Press.

Apparently, it’s a growing trend. And if not, then it is now that the press is writing about it.

Mike Masnick at TechDirt, who points out there are nice online tools for choosing baby names, says the development was perhaps expected. "This isn’t too surprising as a sign of the times, but it does make you wonder if there will be fewer and fewer of stories like the one found recently in the Washington Post of a guy who tried to find all the people around the world who shared his name."

I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that WebProNews and I beat WaPo on that by about six months. But who’s counting?

(Hey, I take my wins where I can get them, wrap them up, put them in my pocket, go to the top of the hill and yell "Pffffffftttttt." Now, if I could just get Google PR to drop me a line at the same time or prior to them giving the New York Times and Wall Street Journal advance notice of things. Both didn’t know you existed four years ago, Google. But we did. Wink, wink, whine.)

Ahem. Like I was saying, the name thing is an issue close to my heart, seeing as I was saddled with one of the most common names in English history, so common that I share it, or a variation of it, with five other writers, a race car driver, three actors, a rodeo rider, and the lead singer for Godhead.

Doesn’t matter, because I got my domain name, suckers! And I can’t be bought, unless you offer me a whole lot of money.