Where Did Our Virtual Assistants Get Their Names?

Tweet

For the activation names of the main digital assistants Amazon, Apple and Windows they came up with the names Alexa, Siri and Cortana. But how did those names come into being? Alexa comes from the library in ancient Egypt, Alexandria. Known as the "keeper of all knowledge". In the case of Apple's Siri they wanted a name that was easy to remember and as short as possible. The Engineering Director, Adam Cheyer, liked Siri because the domain name was available. That was the big selling point. And, it's Swahili meaning is "secret". The game Halo is where Windows came up their digital assissant's name,Cortana. They wanted a name that could easily be understood and be distinguish from any other words you could be saying.