Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have given their baby daughter, Max, a Chinese name — Chen Mingyu — marking Chinese New Year.

The surname Chen takes after Chan’s family name, while Zuckerberg revealed that Mingyu ‘represents our hope for a brighter tomorrow for the world’.

Zuckerberg — dressed in his trademark gray T-shirt — and a more festive-looking Chan appeared with Max in a video on Sunday (7 Feb) to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, reports straitstimes.com.

The couple, speaking entirely in Mandarin in the one and a half minute-long clip, said Facebook held its annual Chinese New Year celebration the night before by hosting famous chefs from China.

The chefs prepared different cuisines for the Facebook staff to sample, with Zuckerberg revealing that his favourite dish was roast duck.

‘From our little family to yours, we wish you health and prosperity in the new Monkey Year!’ added Chan, who gave birth to Max in late November.

 Zuckerberg, who last month became the 6th-richest person in the world, ended the video on a humorous note by asking Max: ‘You think my Chinese is bad?’

The 31-year-old first displayed his Mandarin-speaking skills, which he decided to pick up so as to communicate with Chan’s family, during a 30-minute Q&A session at Beijing’s Tsinghua University in October 2014.

He also recorded a Chinese New Year greeting in Mandarin last year.