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Comment by binarynate | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one who laments this trend of using a common first name as a product name? When I see this, my first reaction is that the company lacks any empathy for people who have the name they're co-opting.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2021/p...

https://archive.is/w8r58

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As someone named Devin who works in tech, I greatly hope this project fails. :)

No, I'm Devin.

At least our names got attached to an upstanding product, and one that is likely to languish and fail. We're not the next "Alexa", I hope.

100% agree. It is shitty and rude. Not to mention it does not even make sense.

Not sure about the “rude” part. It really depends on the person. But yes, it can get annoying rally fast. Therefore “shitty” indeed. But yeah, I do think it is very cheezy and lazy when companies do this. When I talked to someone that worked there, I guess it was because of the hard constant “X” -it would make a better Hollywood movie if they said Artificial. Language. Expanded. Xenomorphic. Amplified. A. L. E. X. A.

Devin comes from "dev in chat", a common phrase in livestream chat rooms to signal that the developer of the game or product being showcased was present.

why not just call it dev

Dev is also a human name.

The short version of my name is one letter away from "Alexa". You can imagine how many comments and jokes about Amazon's AI assistant I've been party to for the past decade. Although it may be hard for you to believe I actually don't really care, much as you probably don't care about the hot dogs bearing your name that you see when you walk down the cold aisle in the grocery store. Should they instead call the anthropomorphized AI assistant something like "W'rkncacnter" to preclude the possibility of name collisions (chaotic entities imprisoned in alien stars notwithstanding)?

My Japanese mom always thought it was weird to put peoples names to destructive forces like hurricanes. I think she said in Japan use some numbering system (might be as simple as incrementing, I don't remember).

The US did this for a long time -- only numbering storms. In 1953 they switched to a list of names, female only. Then 25 years later to male and female names. It is kinda weird, and if they're destructive enough the name is retired. I think the idea is that people would pay more attention to human names in the warning process as the hurricanes approach land.

I could definitely see the support response to a major storm being better when it's easier to communicate and identify a specific storm.

When I was 7, my family's Japanese foreign exchange student was being introduced to me. She bursted out laughing saying my nick name Dev Dev sounded like "fart fart" or "fat fart".

Had the nickname fart fart until my sister moved out of the house.

Maybe you could confirm, but ChatGPT tells me in Japanese Debu colloquially and offensively means "fat" or "chubby", and Bu is an onomotapoeia for a fart noise, like "prrt" in English.

But I bet you're never late for your train

It appears your name is Alex, so I'm not surprised that the Alexa product name doesn't bother you. I suspect you would feel different if your name was Alexa. If the product was named Nate, it would bother me. There are plethora of other options for product names that companies can use besides common first names.

> "W'rkncacnter" to preclude the possibility of name collisions (chaotic entities imprisoned in alien stars notwithstanding)?

Bold move, but imagine the patch notes:

• Fixed bug where assistant attempted to unmake the fabric of reality

• Resolved issue where “Set alarm for 7 AM” triggered a rampancy cascade

• Improved pronunciation of “Lh’owon” for calendar appointments

Probably still a better bet than Durandal, definitely an improvement over Tycho.

And then there was Leela…

I think it's different when the product is an tool you call by name to use vs just the name of the tool. E.g. the article is about "Alexa" and I'm not sure most people even realize there are ways to use it without saying "Hey Alexa" every time. Without that type of callback association it's not a very serious concern.

I don't care about it potentially being a real name, because I doubt it would be a household item, but somehow the name itself for this particular product seems offputting.

If it had to be a name for a product, it seems like to give me some sort of cheap male grooming or AXE body spray product vibes.

Probably, I share a name with a product and I couldn't care less. It's wild that some would feel bad much less consider it lacking empathy.

I don't like first name product names for other reasons but not because they share a name with humans named the same

They gotta be Joshing us! How's Dic-I mean, Richard?

Just having fun. I see what you mean and vaguely support it... I just won't lose anything over it

How is it lacking empathy? Devin is not something invoked by voice, so I fail to see the comparison to Alexa.

edit:

> Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

> Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.

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