No One Will Ever Have the Name Alexa Again
Alexa used to be a proper noun primarily given to man babies. Now it's mainly for robots.
Seven years agone, Amazon released Alexa, its vocalism assistant, and every bit the number of devices answering to that name has skyrocketed, its popularity with American parents has plummeted. In fact, it has suffered 1 of the sharpest declines of any popular name in recent years. "Alexa stands alone as a name that was steadily popular—non a one-yr celebrity wonder, non a fading by favorite—that was pushed off the popularity cliff," Laura Wattenberg, the founder of the naming-trends website Namerology, told me.
At first, the number of infant Alexas spiked following the vocalism assistant's rollout in late 2014—perhaps parents heard the proper name in the news and liked it—just information technology has since crashed. Likely, parents began to realize that having the proper noun could be a nuisance, or worse, could get associated with subservience, because people are always giving orders to their virtual Alexas.
This up-and-downwards pattern reminded Wattenberg of what happens with babies named after hurricanes, when "the news coverage and attention causes the name to briefly shoot up, and and so the backwash, when the name is constantly referred to every bit a disaster, kind of kills it off." Basically, Amazon's impact on the proper name Alexa resembles that of a natural disaster. (When I reached out to the company, it didn't comment on whether it had played a role in Alexa's pass up.)
Alexa joins a handful of other names that were toppled by a shift in clan. Possibly the virtually famous is Hillary, which was in fashion in the late 1980s but barbarous out of style afterwards Hillary Clinton became first lady. (Wattenberg said parents tend not to choose politicians' names, regardless of party.) Dick lost its appeal when it was no longer primarily used as a nickname for Richard, and more recently, parents ran from the proper noun Isis when it became connected to terrorism.
The data on infant names released past the Social Security Administration don't indicate why parents choice or avoid particular names, but Alexa's trajectory mirrors the adoption of smart speakers in the U.S. Bret Kinsella, the founder of Voicebot.ai, a site that covers and analyzes data on the voice-assistant industry, told me that consumer uptake surged three years after Alexa'southward release, in 2017. And the number of baby Alexas plunged below its pre-Amazon baseline in 2018—that may be when many parents started to understand the ubiquity of the name. (Now more than xc 1000000 American adults are estimated to take a smart speaker in their household.)
Trend lines in other countries provide further bear witness that Amazon was what punctured the name Alexa's popularity. The voice assistant's debut in the United Kingdom (in 2016) and in Canada (in 2017) were also followed by drop-offs in baby Alexas. (Owners tin can select a different "wake word" for their device then that they don't have to say "Alexa" to become its attention, merely that doesn't much alter the name's associations.)
It is not inherently a problem for a person and a product to share a proper noun, Wattenberg noted—for instance, Dakota and Sierra have led happy double lives every bit names for both humans and pickup trucks.
What's different about Alexa is that Amazon turned it into a name for a female person voice that does your bidding. Other tech companies with vocalism assistants, though, have avoided annexing a popular name. Google's vocalism assistant just goes by Google, and Microsoft's is Cortana, which is in fact a proper name, simply a very rare ane.
Meanwhile, Apple has produced a much milder version of an Alexa upshot. Siri wasn't a particularly pop name to begin with before Apple tree released its vocalization assistant, Siri, 10 years ago, but it'due south become fifty-fifty less pop since. The number of baby Siris each yr fell from 111 in 2010 to x in 2020. There'south too been a drib-off in some Nordic countries, where the name is more mutual; last year, Denmark produced just one lone baby Siri. (Apple also did non comment on its role in the name Siri'south decline.)
"We don't usually think about the individuals who are already born when this happens, merely the touch on on their lives is real as well," Philip Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland at College Park, told me. Sharing a name with a robot can exist tiresome. "'OMG, Siri like the iPhone,' should be engraved on my tombstone," complained Siri Bulusu, a announcer, in a 2022 piece about her name. And name overlaps have led to sitcom-mode misunderstandings, similar when, as The Wall Street Journal reported, one dad asked his daughter Alexa for some water, and their robot Alexa responded by offering to society a case of Fiji water for $27.
But Amazon's choice of name has had much darker effects on the lives of some Alexas, peculiarly the younger ones who get teased at schoolhouse with an onslaught of commands. Wattenberg observed that the but Alexa that many of today's children know is the virtual ane that their family bosses around, so it's non surprising that some of them go on to belittle classmates with the aforementioned proper name. "Many parents [of Alexas] are changing their kids' names or using their middle names considering it leads to just horrendous bullying," she told me.
When I asked Amazon if it has considered relinquishing the name Alexa, a company spokesperson did not respond that question but said, "Bullying of any kind is unacceptable, and we condemn it in the strongest possible terms."
Amazon did not exactly ruin the life of every Alexa, but the consequences of its decision 7 years ago are far-reaching—roughly 127,000 American babe girls were named Alexa in the past 50 years, and more than 75,000 of them are younger than 18. Amazon didn't take their perfectly expert name out of malice, but regardless, it'due south not giving it back.
Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2021/08/amazon-alexa-popular-name/619794/
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