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Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

97 points| giuliomagnifico | 5 years ago |statista.com | reply

143 comments

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[+] Laremere|5 years ago|reply
I think Alexa and Siri are two examples of poor software ethics in practice. Ethics are more than just "don't kill or enslave people", but thinking about "if we make this choice, what consequences will it have, and will those consequences be negative to anyone?" In general, I think "don't name something a name which is given to people" is a not entirely obvious, but fairly good rule.

This also related to the practice that if you meet someone, and you think of a joke or quip based on your first impression, don't say it: It might be novel to you, but they've heard it before and are likely very tired of that being everyone's first interaction with them. True for names, physical characteristics, professions, etc.

[+] djmips|5 years ago|reply
I agree, it's been also going on in hurricanes and even memes (Karen). In fact how about not naming things that are already used in general (Windows). At the very least we won't have to sit through lame obvious puns but at best we don't pollute the namespace.
[+] jmosbech|5 years ago|reply
Related: Being married to an actual Siri made it easy for us to rule out one of the home automation platforms. (I asked, but somehow she didn’t feel like changing her name.)
[+] reaperducer|5 years ago|reply
I am acquaintances with a Siri. She's seems like a nice person, but since she works in a service industry I bet she's tired of hearing "Hey, Siri" all the time. If I was her, I'd ask for permission to not wear a name tag.
[+] ben509|5 years ago|reply
> I asked, but somehow she didn’t feel like changing her name.

That's nuts. It's just a bit of paperwork!

[+] SomeHacker44|5 years ago|reply
I too work with a real-world Siri, and he is also male.
[+] azurezyq|5 years ago|reply
I think this sentence is kind of BS:

> Having been the 32nd most popular name for girls born in 2015, Alexa's rank dropped to 139th in 2019, the lowest it's been since 1992.

Thanks for the link provided by adjkant below, here's the ranks per year:

2019 139

2018 90

2017 65

2016 51

2015 32

2014 63

2013 60

2012 57

2011 55

2010 50

2009 43

2008 50

2007 40

2006 39

2005 66

2004 72

2003 67

2002 69

2001 78

2000 87

I agree that ranks in 2018 and 2019 is low and on point. However 2015 is already an outlier. The sentence doesn't make much sense statistically. It's a bit like picking data points purposefully.

[+] MarkLowenstein|5 years ago|reply
It's certainly become an inconvenient name to utter around our house, due to the responses it elicits from our countertops. So my daughter came up with the idea of referring to the device as "Amelia" whenever we talk about her. It has worked brilliantly and I suggest that everyone adopt the same convention.
[+] thrtythreeforty|5 years ago|reply
AWS employee here.

We purposely say "ALex-uh" in group calls instead of "uhLEXa", because we talk about the service and devices all the time and using the correct pronunciation would trigger 10-15 Alexas sitting on everyone's desks!

[+] NullPrefix|5 years ago|reply
Or you could just throw away those listening devices.
[+] mc32|5 years ago|reply
Can't you just change the prompt for the device to one of the other options? Though I dunno why they can't make it use any wake word you choose.
[+] exporectomy|5 years ago|reply
It's the same problem having a dog. You can't go mentioning its name willy-nilly or it'll respond. But dogs go one step further and adapt to misuse of their name by unlearning it. I refer to ours as various insulting names even when she's not around, out of habit.
[+] LeoPanthera|5 years ago|reply
We just say "the echo" when we want to refer to it without triggering it. But you can change the hotword in Echo devices anyway, if you don't like "Alexa".
[+] cadence-|5 years ago|reply
We use the name Lexi instead.
[+] mentos|5 years ago|reply
Funny coincidence I was just wondering this a few weeks ago when reading a Tinder bio of a girl named Alexa who had something to the effect of 'heard all the Alexa jokes for a lifetime thanks'

Made me wonder if there is a class action lawsuit where all of the Alexa's could sue Amazon for psychological distress or something.

[+] afavour|5 years ago|reply
I know an Alexa and she says the same. I'll admit I hadn't thought about it before but it does sound like an incredibly annoying thing to have dropped on you from on high: constant jokes, if anyone addresses you in an Amazon-enabled home all kind of crap gets triggered... I can see why people are infuriated by it.
[+] ChuckNorris89|5 years ago|reply
In the German speaking world the name Kevin is ruined, with some men having that name being avoided in the dating scene.
[+] flycaliguy|5 years ago|reply
People named Alexa should be given special privileges with the devices. I’m thinking muting but maybe the device should start apologizing and arranging free packages.
[+] moron4hire|5 years ago|reply
I wish these companies wouldn't anthropomorphize the systems so much. I catch my mother calling Siri "her", and my wife calls Google Assistant "her" because she has it set to a feminine voice. I try to remind our small children that it's just a computer, there is no person behind it.

It's important, because I've noticed that folks who humanize these assistants start having expectations of their capabilities that far exceed their reality. If you understand the assistant to be a crappy menu system on top of a regular, ol' Google Search, you can start to use them more effectively. My father thinks yelling the same request, word for word, will get a different response from Google. You might as well have tried typing a search into the Google website, got the wrong results, and then typed in the same search in all-caps.

There's almost no continuity between commands. I wish they would not create continuity for the extremely small subset of factoid lookup commands they've manually programmed in and just leave everything to a single, unified model that is more predictable.

I use Google Assistant to check the weather, add items to the family grocery list, play music, and entertain the kids with animal sounds. That's about all it's good for. It does it pretty well. But to expect more is an exercise in frustration.

[+] mackrevinack|5 years ago|reply
i heard there are some parents that make their kids say "thank you" or "please" to their voice assistants. that really bothers me for some reason. its like putting "please" at the end of a google search. its just plain illogical
[+] vmception|5 years ago|reply
Just a friendly reminder that baby names are adult names.
[+] Waterluvian|5 years ago|reply
And that children are people and not stylish accessories.
[+] exporectomy|5 years ago|reply
It's more relevant to call them baby names when considering popularity since that's the age of the person when their name is chosen. This recent decline is only a decline in baby names, not necessarily adult names.
[+] adam12|5 years ago|reply
Yes, and the internet has ruined the name Karen, too.
[+] da_big_ghey|5 years ago|reply
Yep, they basically "cancelled" an entire name. I know two people named Karen, both of whom are kind and sweet ladies, and they are sick of it. I am just hoping that my name is not next.
[+] mackrevinack|5 years ago|reply
people ruined the name Dick, Mickey and Fanny long before the internet was even a thing
[+] flukus|5 years ago|reply
If amazon ruined the name it was surely when Alexa was first used as a spyware IE plugin and it's accompanying website popularity ranking.

I'm kind of surprised they ever used the brand for anything after that.

[+] Johnny555|5 years ago|reply
I have a niece Alexa, their family just set their Echo device's wake word to Echo.
[+] whoisjuan|5 years ago|reply
Alexa, Karen, Chad...Yours could be next.
[+] rootusrootus|5 years ago|reply
Perhaps the upside of having a biblical name that is shared by 10 million other Americans is that it probably isn't too easy to twist it into an insult.

Edit: that may be an overestimate. Still one of the most popular names in the US, but a more official source (SS) suggests there are no single names which are shared by more than about 5M people.

[+] polka_haunts_us|5 years ago|reply
It's even worse if its your surname like Poindexter or something, kinda hard to get a surname nickname.
[+] withaplomb|5 years ago|reply
Try being called Beavis in the 90s with MTVs show.
[+] jzer0cool|5 years ago|reply
May be a correlation can be made with Siri. Has the number of people named Siri (if any) gone up? From an ethical point I wonder the true affect of using a name that already exists in society. I do see the effect it has as it is intended to be more human-like.

The same as why you might name your dog George. Should there be robot-like names.

[+] eplanit|5 years ago|reply
Alexa now joins Adolph. Those would be perfect names for a fairy tale of evil twins, for sure.
[+] ajay-b|5 years ago|reply
My wife’s name begins with the letter A, and we considered many names for our daughter, but Alexa was absolutely off the list.
[+] CameronNemo|5 years ago|reply
Amazon has ruined the name Amazon.

A word that used to command respect and awe now connotates shipping waste and overworked warehouse laborers.

[+] dyingkneepad|5 years ago|reply
Not really. If I say "she is an Amazon!" you will think I'm saying she's a female warrior instead of a megacorporation.
[+] exporectomy|5 years ago|reply
It probably now commands even more widespread respect and awe - but for the corporation.