While the announcement that Facebook is changing its name to Meta has become a hot topic of conversation in the United States, it doesn’t compare to the buzz it’s generated in Israel.
That’s because “meta” sounds just like the Hebrew word for “dead,” the BBC reports. Specifically, the rebranded social media site’s name sounds like the feminine form of the Hebrew word, per the agency.
The news doesn’t mark the first time a U.S. company’s message has been lost in translation. When KFC expanded to China in the 1980s, the translation of the motto “finger lickin’ good” ended up reading “eat your fingers off” in Chinese. And the 2011 introduction of Nokia’s Lumia phone in Germany fell flat because “lumia” means “prostitute” in German.
If you were Mark Zuckerberg, would you pick a new name?
