The trauma of being called Alexa and having to change the name 'because of Amazon

Burlas, acoso, momentos incómodos, apodos no deseados… esa es la situación recurrente de algunas niñas y mujeres llamadas Alexa por la simple y única razón de compartir nombre con el asistente virtual de Amazon. Algunas ya se llamaban así antes del lanzamiento. Otras recibieron su nombre después. Pero la mayoría comparte, en su relato a The Washington Post, que su nombre le ha supuesto más de un problema. Tanto es así que algunas han decidido cambiárselo incluso de manera legal.

The aforementioned public medium that in the United States are registered about 130.000 people with the name of Alexa.A name that, they tell, gained popularity in the mid -eighties after singer Billy Joel and the model Christie Brinkley called their daughter like this.In 2015, more than 6.000 babies received that name.Since the launch of Amazon, in 2014, it has lost popularity.In 2020, around 1.300 babies were called Alexa.What tells the extensive report made by Alexa Juliana Ard for The Washington Post gives an idea of why.

Who signs the information published a few days ago has spoken with another 25 people called as herself and many share the same trauma.One of the most significant testimonies in this regard is that of Alexa Jade Morales, daughter of Erim Corado and Alexis Morales.Boyfriends from the Institute in Connecticut, he died at 17 years of a shot in the head and without getting to know his daughter, who would be born three months later.As a tribute and reminder, Corado decided to call his daughter Alexa, born in October 1992.

There were no problems with the name until the assistant was launched and the jokes and laughter began at his expense.A point came that became unbearable and decided to resort to a diminutive since even explaining the emotional connection of his name with his father failed to stop the situation.Now, and since 2018, he calls himself Lex.Something that makes his mother feel bad because he has lost "another connection" with his father."He deserved his name to be honored, not to turn it into something that belittled the daughter to whom he never hugged," says Corado.

Situations that are repeated again and again

This is only one of the cases of those 25 women and girls between 5 and 55 years interviewed and living in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe.There are those who have no problem and live indifferent to that relationship, but there are more cases such as Morales.For example, that of another young woman of Mexican origin who a couple of years ago decided to start using her second name, Juliana, to dodge the jokes about it.A decision that cost her to take because Alexa's was a name that her mother liked it long before she was born in 1994.

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Alexa García resident in Puebla (Mexico) lived really annoying situations when, on the occasion of pandemic, classes went from face -to -face to virtual.His teacher turned out that he had a device with Alexa included and every time his name was mentioned, it was activated causing the generalized laughter.Fed up with those interruptions, the teacher started calling her Alex without even asking her.He did not work and ended up calling her Alé or by her last name, bothering her student deeply, who recognizes the American newspaper that she does not feel respected when they change her name.Especially if they do not consult before.

Of the testimonies collected for the aforementioned report, seven women acknowledged having lived similar situations to those of Garcia in which other people decided to change their name so that Amazon devices did not be given by afraid and responded.

A Alexas Facebook group

One of the most violent situations lived on account of the jokes for sharing name with the virtual assistant has been told by Alexa S.In 2018, when I was 16, during a summer camp he had to deal with several colleagues who decided to launch sexual requests using the formula used to ask Alexa to.She, like so many others, ended up joining a Facebook group called Alexa is a human that has more than a thousand followers who try to show the uncomfortable of the situation they live.

Girls' father called Alexa claim to be concerned about the subject and be teaching their daughters how to react to this type of jokes.Who signs the report explains that he met several groups of parents who had requested legally changing the name to their daughters and that at least a dozen, both girls and adults, decided to start using nicknames or their second name if they had it.

Amazon explained in his day that the fact of choosing Alexa is a reference to the Alexandria Library and an attempt to humanize his assistant.Although this time they have not responded to The Washington Post, from the company they assured the BBC this summer as a result of a case of harassment like those that are counted here, that “the harassment of any kind is unacceptable and we condemn it in the termsmore energetic possible.We design our voice assistant to reflect the qualities we value in people: be intelligent, considered, empathic and inclusive.As an alternative to Alexa, we offer several other words of activation among which customers can choose, such as Echo, Computer, Amazon and Ziggy ”.

It is true that some devices offer the option to change the word of activation for a different from Alexa.But it is no less true that many others do not allow it.

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