TAIF — The popularity of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who successfully crushed a coup attempt against him — seems to have crossed Turkish borders. Inspired by Erdogan, a Saudi father decided to change the name of his infant from Rayan Al-Otaibi to Erdogan Al-Otaibi. But this combination of an Arabic and a Turkish name evoked social media criticism. Twitter users criticized the father, saying children's names should not be influenced by political incidents or foreign personalities. Some of them said that if the father wished to change his infant's name he should have named him after one of the Saudis martyred in the fight against Houthi rebels. However, the father said on social media that he did not intend to change the name of his infant from Rayan to Erdogan. It was just a family joke, he claimed. The naming of children after political personalities is not uncommon in the Arab region. A man from a Gulf country named his son "Bush" after the US president liberated Kuwait from Iraqi occupation. Children often suffer from their peculiar names when they grow up as their peers sometimes make fun of them.
