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Couple asks Facebook users to pick child’s name

By | September 25, 2011, 11:30am PDT

Summary: An Illinois couple has asked everyone on Facebook to help in naming their daughter by voting in a poll. There are four choices: McKenna, Madelyn, Addilyne, and Emily.

27-year-old Dave Meske and 24-year-old Lindsey Meske can’t settle on a name for their unborn baby girl, due in January. After weeks of disagreement, their solution is simple: ask Facebook users to pick for them. That’s right – you can help!

The Illinois couple wasn’t interested in the conventional methods of picking a name: considering the many names of their parents or grandparents, buying a book of names, or simply using eeny, meeny, miny, moe. Everyone on the social network (a potential 800 million votes) can participate. Since Lindsey has lot more relatives than Dave, he convinced her to let the whole world vote.

Rather than ask for suggestions, they’ve narrowed down the list to four names they’re particularly fond of: McKenna (Lindsey’s first choice), Madelyn (Dave’s first choice), Addilyne (Lindsey’s second), and Emily (Dave’s second). Voting will end as soon as the baby is born, and if there’s a tie, they’ll just flip a coin.

You can vote on the poll on the following Facebook Page, which even has an ultrasound scan of the baby: Name My Child; you’ll have to give the app access to your Facebook account first. Here’s the poll’s description:

I need your help on naming my new baby girl! So Lindsey and I cannot decide on a name for our new baby girl. So we have decided to be the first parents ever to let the people of Facebook make that decision for us!

The Meskes had no trouble naming their firstborn, now 4-year-old Brianna. They originally picked Cooper for what they thought would be a boy, but the ultrasound on September 6 told them they had to pick another girl’s name.

“My in-laws think it’s funny. They know my personality,” Dave told the Daily Herald. “My parents think I’m crazy; they tell me, ‘You’re such a goofball.’”

“I was a little anxious about it at first, but then I thought, it might be kind of fun to have a story behind the name,” Linsey said. “He’s always coming up with harebrained ideas, and me being the good wife, I said OK, I’ll support him.”

This is not the first time Facebook has been involved in naming a baby. Back in February, an Egyptian father named his firstborn daughter Facebook to show his appreciation for the social network. In May, an Israeli couple named their daughter Like, after the Facebook feature.

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Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications.

Disclosure

Emil Protalinski

Emil has nothing to disclose.

Biography

Emil Protalinski

Emil Protalinski has covered the tech industry for five years for multiple publications, including Neowin for two years and Ars Technica for three years. He has written 1,000s of articles for both, with a particular focus on scrutinizing Microsoft products and services. Recently, Emil has expanded his coverage to non-Microsoft technologies, including the social networking giant Facebook.

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