Woman called Yoda blocked from Facebook

Hiroko Yoda says she made several attempts to sign up to the popular social networking site but her applications were always met with an error message.

The Japanese author suspected that her distinctive surname – which she shares with the wise, green Jedi Master of the Star Wars film series – may be at the root of her problem.

Her suspicions were confirmed when her attempts to sign up using other anglicised versions of her surname, including Youda and Yohda, proved successful.

After contacting Facebook she claims she was told that Yoda had been placed on a name blacklist because so many members pretended to be the fictional three-fingered seer. The website only allows people to join under their real names.