Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's gender-neutral baby name
In a Facebook post, Mark welcomes his daughter
Mark Zuckerberg's wife Priscilla Chan has given birth to a baby girl. And in true social media guru style, Mark has taken to Facebook to announce his daughter's gender-neutral name.
"Priscilla and I are so happy to welcome our daughter Max into this world!" he wrote.
The name is short for Maxima - which doesn't rank in the top 1,000 girls names in the USA. However the couple have been calling her Max - a pretty unusual name for a girl. Just 150 baby girls born in the United States have been given the name according to Social Security Administration data.
Only 14 girls were named Max in 2014 – Maxine was much more common with 202 born in the same year.
Jessica Simpson named her daughter Maxwell in 2012 and there were 34 girls named the same in 2014.
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Max is a short form of Maxima or Maximillian, which means 'greatest' in Latin.
As well as sharing a picture of their newborn, the couple also announced plans to give the vast majority of their Facebook stock to charity. They've set up a charity named the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and have promised to give away 99% of their Facebook shares in their lifetime – currently worth about $45bn.
In a letter written to their daughter on Facebook, they said:
"Dear Max,
Your mother and I don’t yet have the words to describe the hope you give us for the future. Your new life is full of promise, and we hope you will be happy and healthy so you can explore it fully. You’ve already given us a reason to reflect on the world we hope you live in.
Like all parents, we want you to grow up in a world better than ours today.
While headlines often focus on what’s wrong, in many ways the world is getting better. Health is improving. Poverty is shrinking. Knowledge is growing. People are connecting. Technological progress in every field means your life should be dramatically better than ours today.
We will do our part to make this happen, not only because we love you, but also because we have a moral responsibility to all children in the next generation.
We believe all lives have equal value, and that includes the many more people who will live in future generations than live today. Our society has an obligation to invest now to improve the lives of all those coming into this world, not just those already here."
Congratulations both!
Photo: Facebook / Mark Zuckerberg
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