Instagram picture receives 2.5 million ‘likes’ in an hour

Pop diva Beyonce unveiled her newborn twins to the world on Friday, posting a glamorous photo on Instagram and announcing their names.

“Sir Carter and Rumi 1 month today,” reads the caption on the photo, which focuses much more on the 35-year-old singer than the little ones.

That wording puzzled many people on social media: Is the first child named Sir Carter or simply Sir, Carter being the last name of their rapper father Jay-Z? Others wondered about the gender of the babies.

Beyonce’s mother Tina Knowles cleared it all up later in her own Instagram post: one twin is a boy named Sir, period, and Rumi is a girl.

“So Happy my baby shared a photo of her babies with the world,” Tina Knowles wrote. “Proud grandma hello Sir Carter and Rumi Carter... boy and girl what a blessing.”

Rumi is the name of the 13th-century Persian poet who endures as one of the best-loved writers of the Sufi spiritual tradition, with verses that celebrate love, joy and tolerance.

In the photo, Queen Bey is shown barefoot, standing on a lawn with the ocean in the background.

She is wearing a dramatic ruffled lilac print robe, cascading to the ground, paired with a floor-length pale turquoise veil.

Sharing happiness

The set-up is similar to the one she used to announce her pregnancy back in February, in which she was pictured kneeling in front of a similar floral display while wearing a flowing veil. “We would like to share our love and happiness,” she wrote at the time. “We are incredibly grateful that our family will be growing by two, and we thank you for your well wishes.”

The twins’ first photo attracted plenty of love from Beyonce’s passionate fans, with the post garnering 2.5 million “likes” within an hour.

Beyonce and Jay-Z are music’s royal family. She and the 47-year-old Jay-Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter, already have a five-year-old daughter, Blue Ivy.

Until Friday, the power couple had not even confirmed the twins’ birth, though Beyonce’s father acknowledged the delivery on social media.

It has been an extremely busy time in the celebrity household. On June 30, Jay-Z released his first album in four years. The rapper bared himself as he rarely had before in “4:44,” apologising to Beyonce for his infidelity.