Isis: Thousands ask media to stop using acronym for Islamic State

As many as 57,708 people have signed an online petition calling on media to stop using the acronym Isis for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. The petition comes in the wake of the Paris attacks after which people and businesses named Isis found it disturbing to be associated with the terrorist group.

Isis is the name of a famous Egyptian goddess of the moon, love, magic, fertility and healing. She is depicted as young, healthy and beautiful. According to the petition website Care2, thousands of women and baby girls are named Isis every year after the goddess.

"If your name is Isis or have a daughter or family member named Isis, you can connect with others who are also facing the unnecessary backlash of this irresponsible choice by the media," the website states in its petition.

It says though the petition has drawn huge support, most media outlets "continue to desecrate" the name and some "even go as far as misquoting the President of the United States [Barack Obama] saying Isis, when he only refers to the terror group as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant)."

Isis - a beautiful name

Reports of people named Isis being targeted have surfaced lately. A book store in Colorado has been vandalised five times because it is named after the Egyptian goddess. Disturbance among others could be seen in the comments by the petitioners.

"My name is Isis and I already feel offended by the media, so I can only begin to imagine what women/girls called Isis must feel like. And on top of that, I'm Belgian... Not a very comfortable combination these days," a petitioner says.

A father named William Reimer writes: "It is very heartbreaking to hear my beautiful daughter's name being used to refer to such a brutal group. The media in their ignorance has used this name so inaccurately and created such a stigma for what was so very beautiful."

The love for the name extends to animals as well. An anonymous petitioner signed the online appeal for their cat that is named Isis. "The only person I know named Isis is our cat, she is the opposite of the evil associated the name these days, but she was named after the goddess. I am against the media using this beautiful name for a hateful radical group befitting barbarians. Let's take back the name!" the supporter writes.

Isis, Isil or Daesh

There has also been a call from authorities to start using the name Daesh to refer to the Isis terror group. Daesh, or Da'ish, is an abbreviation of the group's Arabic name, al-Dawla al-Islamyia fil Iraq wa'al Sham.

Officials in France have been using the term to refer to the terror group since last year. A Tory MP recently wrote to David Cameron to officially adopt the term, according to the Independent.