Amazon, can I have my name back?
Amazon's use of Alexa as a wake word for its voice assistant turned the name into a command, impacting daily interactions for people with the name \u2013 including The Washington Post\u2019s own Alexa Juliana Ard.
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Nearly 130,000 people in the United States have the name Alexa. It gained popularity after singer Billy Joel and model Christie Brinkley named their daughter Alexa in 1985. In 2015, more than 6,000 baby girls in the United States were named Alexa, according to a Washington Post analysis of Social Security Administration data.
After Amazon chose Alexa as the wake word of its voice service, the name\u2019s popularity plummeted. In 2020, only about 1,300 babies were given the name. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Post video editor Alexa Juliana Ard reports on the impact of Amazon\u2019s choice on Alexas - including her.
Watch Alexa\u2019s video about Alexa Jade Morales. She was named after her father, Alexis Morales Jr., who was murdered on Oct. 1, 1992, just three and a half months before she was born. When Amazon made the name Alexa a wake word for its voice service, she experienced people treating her like the bot.
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