Name Changes

This sign (shown above) used to say Alexa. This is the face of a girl who has been mocked endlessly because Amazon didn't consider the ethics in naming their AI smartspeaker. What if this was your child? Amazon's Alexa has been a great success with 'Voice First,' but when will they put people first? 

As I put my daughter to bed one night, she hugged me and told me " Now that I'm Aria, I'm perfect. " I thought it was a sweet sentiment until I realized she didn't feel she was when her name was Alexa. Amazon has the power to fix this.

~Mom of a former Alexa (5) 

Santa spent so much time asking silly questions about her name that he forgot to ask her what she wanted for Christmas. 

~Mom of a former Alexa (5)  

The 'Happy 13th Alexa' balloon above belonged to a former Alexa in the United Kingdom. In August 2020, Alexa legally changed her name to Alexandra & changed schools. 

March 2021 update: 

My girl is free of the relentless bullying after changing her name, cutting off most of her friends and moving schools.

~Mom of a former Alexa (13)

{Podcast}

Right now, one of the things I get asked so much: "What's your real name?" So, right now, my name, I'm not going to change it again, as many of you guys know, in my past videos, I would go by Alexa, which is the name I was born with, and it will always be a part of me. 

So, probably for a little less than a year, I started going by Harlow and that is what I go by now, that is my real name now. That's what I changed my name to, so I totally understand why you guys would be confused. You watch my video and I'm like, "Hey, it's Harlow," and then you look at the last one, and it's like, "What's up guys, it's Alexa." 

I'm sure you all know about the Amazon Alexa, so that was a factor. At first, it was funny, but then I was getting jokes everywhere I went, every single day, about my name, like people being like, "Hey Alexa, turn on the air conditioning." 

So, it wasn't really a big deal, but then a lot of you guys know I'm an actress, so I would go to all these auditions, and they'd be like "Welcome, Miss Brooks, don't say your first name, we have one of [...] we have an Echo in here, so we don't want it to go off." 

It just started feeling like my name was kind of taken as a joke and I didn't want to be known as the girl who has the Amazon name. It just felt like it wasn't my name anymore. It was weird, I don't even know how to explain it. 

{podcast episode can be found under the 'Media' tab} 

As of January 1, 2022: a 9-year-old girl in the UK is no longer called by her birth name Alexis due to the relentless experiences she endured because of Amazon's choice to use a human name. She now goes by the name Ellis, a name she picked herself to avoid the scrutiny.

currently obtaining more information 

Data indicates that many Alexas {& those with similar names} have or are currently considering a name change either legally or informally. Currently, we can confirm three children under the age of 15 and one adult over the age of 18 who have gone through a legal name change. 

• Many Alexas are using a variation of the name Alexa, an entirely different name or their middle name to escape scrutiny. 
• One Alexa was asked by a college professor to use her last name during online classes to avoid triggering devices. 
• One Alexa had her name reduced to the letter {A} in an online meeting.