Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

statista.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 153 posts

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#41

Post by exporectomy »

azurezyq wrote: post #7

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 tha…

Yes, the description and chart scream of typical journalist disinformation trying to make something seem bigger than it really is. Why does it start at 2015 when Alexa was released? We can't see if it's just continuing a trend. Also, popular baby names only last a few decades anyway, often ending their popularity with a rapid decline that looks just like this graph.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#42

Post by qchris »

koolba wrote: post #33
echelon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like "Karen", but in this case the blame for misuse lies on a single company rather than a meme. We shouldn't abuse people's names by using them for products, gross generalizations, etc. It's poor taste, and it frequently hurts people unintentionally. Imagine your own name being used as a term for ridicule or poking fun. It's not a good feeling.

> We shouldn't abuse people's names by using them for products, gross generalizations, etc. It's poor taste, and it frequently hurts people unintentionally. In the case of Alexa and Cortana, the intention is to treat the machine as a person you can talk to. It’s intentional that it has a human name.

Perhaps it's just my ignorance, but I was under the impression that Cortana was never really a name of a person, but adopted from the Halo franchise (now owned by Microsoft) as the name of the main character's AI companion, which sort of made the name up. If so, I think that makes it a little different.

I double-checked on Wikipedia for the disambiguation [1], but there doesn't seem to a subsection for a normal person-name of Cortana, as compared to the one for Alexa.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortana_(disambiguation)

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#43

Post by throwawayboise »

koolba wrote: post #33
echelon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like "Karen", but in this case the blame for misuse lies on a single company rather than a meme. We shouldn't abuse people's names by using them for products, gross generalizations, etc. It's poor taste, and it frequently hurts people unintentionally. Imagine your own name being used as a term for ridicule or poking fun. It's not a good feeling.

> We shouldn't abuse people's names by using them for products, gross generalizations, etc. It's poor taste, and it frequently hurts people unintentionally. In the case of Alexa and Cortana, the intention is to treat the machine as a person you can talk to. It’s intentional that it has a human name.

Should have just called it "Computer" like on Star Trek.

Or let you give it whatever name you like. It's your device, in theory.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#44

Post by ben509 »

jmosbech wrote: post #36

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.)

> I asked, but somehow she didn’t feel like changing her name.

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

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#46

Post by rootusrootus »

whoisjuan wrote: post #35

Alexa, Karen, Chad...Yours could be next.

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.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#47

Post by reaperducer »

jmosbech wrote: post #36

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.)

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.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#48

Post by ghaff »

throw14082020 wrote: post #39
justtocomment wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how we twist our behaviour to accomodate the technology and not the other way around. What worked great for us was not buying the thing in the first place.

Don't worry the wake word will be customizable soon enough;

You can change it to Amazon, Echo, or Computer. None of which are likely to be names of people in your house--other than the Dollhouse exception for Echo. Most people just likely prefer a more personal name which is, almost by definition, an accepted human name.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#49

Post by reaperducer »

afavour wrote: post #18
mentos wrote: post #8

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.

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.

People are like that. Ask a tall person if he's tired of people asking, "What's the weather like up there?"

My first name is associated with a catch phrase of a particular era, and I can judge how old someone is by their reaction to it.

You live with it. You move on with your life.

Re: Has Amazon Ruined the Name Alexa?

#50

Post by da_big_ghey »

reaperducer wrote: post #47
jmosbech wrote: post #36

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.)

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.

Has she considered changing the name on the tag, just at work? Just put "Jane" or something generic, or "Sarah" so it sounds similar. But yeah, it unfair that she has to be the one to change.
Post reply on HN