Facebook Bans Batman (And Other Strange Names)

This story is a few days old, but it still has some pretty disturbing implications: The Washington Post reports that Batman has been banned from Facebook! No, not Batman the costumed crimefighter, but rather, Caitlin Batman Shaw, the mental health therapist from Arlington, Virginia.

It turns out that Facebook has a pretty strict policy about using fake names on your account. However, this policy creates problems when someone's actual name sounds like it's been made up. Thus, when Caitlin Shaw tried to add her maiden name of Batman to her account, she was denied. It took three weeks of  back-and-forth between her and Facebook's customer service representatives before she was finally able to get her account restored with her rightful name. Another Batman, Miranda Batman (no relation), encountered similar resistance and simply gave up and used her husband's surname instead.

Character names in general appear susceptible to the banhammer. Yoda is apparently a blocked name, and a woman named Betsy Super reported having similar problems as Batman. Other names mentioned in the article that had problems getting past Facebook's filters: Bess Pancake, Tim Six, Jeff College, Chris Blue, and so on.

All of this raises the question: If Facebook is actively rejecting Batman, can total anarchy on the social networking site be far behind?

Discuss: What is the whackiest name you know someone has been able to slip into their Facebook profile?

[Thanks to GreatWhiteSnark and /Film reader egyptnation for the tip]