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.
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.
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.
Or let you give it whatever name you like. It's your device, in theory.
Isn't it pretty well accepted that is already happening? It's why I'll never have one of these things in my house. That and I don't like talking to machines (unless I'm cursing at them).
You mean like "a John"? Or "Dick"? Or "a big Charlie"? These things are old as sin, stuff like this will probably exist forever. Forbid it as much as you want, it will always come back one way or another. Or is the problem that now they "trend female", whereas they historically trended male?
I have a pretty simple name, but because it was used in the title of a popular movie at one point, I've endured jokes about it all my life. What are we going to do, have all characters nameless in media? Of course not.
Sometimes the answer really is "grow a thicker skin". Either that or abandon the "tainted" name, like it happened to Adolph/Adolf.
> You mean like "a John"? Or "Dick"? Or "a big Charlie"?
This has been the case for so long that parents have had ample time to stop naming their children this.
They recently renamed a nearby bridge in Georgia from "Dick Hunter Memorial Bridge" [1,2].
[1] http://ethunter1.blogspot.com/2006/03/hunter-bridge-part-2.h...
[2] https://thegate.boardingarea.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/...
I think it would be very depressing to abandon a glorious name like John just because a bunch of prostitutes use it as shorthand.
With the right last name, Richard can be carried with pride. I’ve met a Steele and a Hardin, they were perfectly happy to have their last name included.
Dick/Richard is the only one here I agree with. That is extremely commonly used slang, so it makes sense.
My bother in law has one of those names which is is a "joke" and it doesn't seem to bother him in the least. My Sister OTOH, I don't think I actually knew his full name until I was attending their wedding.
Dick is short for Richard - like Bill and William, or Bob and Robert. It goes Richard -> Rick -> Dick.
Unless what you meant was every single unpleasant person you've known was named Richard.