Hey, Siri: How'd you and every other digital assistant get its name?

Siri. Alexa. Google. Cortana. The digital assistants created by the largest tech companies in the world have become such a big part of our everyday lives, you may have never considered why we call them the names we do.

But the stories behind these names are more complex than you might think. 

In almost every case, other names were considered and, often, preferred. Cortana was almost called Alyx, Steve Jobs didn't like the name Siri, and if Jeff Bezos had had his way, you'd be calling your Echo "Amazon" instead. The reason why names like Siri, Cortana and Alexa prevailed often had more to do with chance and circumstance than a particular engineering or marketing decision.  Read more...