“How One Woman’s Cherished Name Became a Target of Amazon-Driven Ridicule”

Imagine sharing a name with a virtual assistant that’s become a household staple—and not in a fun way! Alexa Nizam, an everyday person with an undeniably catchy name, has gone through the wringer thanks to Amazon’s infamous gadget. We all know how essential it is to enjoy our names, especially since most of us carry them from cradle to grave, but for Nizam, that joy turned into head-scratching torment. From daily jokes about the weather to constant puns during her work shifts, her life was a never-ending comedy sketch revolving around the name ‘Alexa.’ So, what happens when your name is the punchline? Let’s dive into her quirky and relatable journey of reclaiming her identity amidst the laughs. LEARN MORE.

Considering the majority of us carry the same name from the cradle to the grave, liking our moniker is quite essential.

If your parents did you royally dirty, you do have the option of legally changing it – or you could simply tweak your title like a ton of famous faces did after joining the showbiz world.

But this woman was seriously considering going by something else after experiencing years of ‘torment’ from people taking the p*ss out of her name.

And the blame for this lies with Amazon, according to Alexa Nizam.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out why she holds the online retailer, founded by Jeff Bezos, responsible for being teased.

But if the penny hasn’t dropped, it’s because the ‘virtual assistant’ device which Amazon put on the market in 2014 shares the same name as her.

As we all know, it’s voice activated and you get its attention by saying wake words such as ‘Alexa’ or ‘Amazon’, followed by a command.

The technology took the world by storm and every man and his dog has one in their home these days – but its popularity has been a huge pain for Nizam.

In an article for Business Insider shared last year, she explained that she ‘loved’ her name growing up, but that all changed when the gadget was launched over a decade ago.

“At first, the references were subtle,” Nizam explained. “While they should have gone with something more obscure, it hadn’t really affected me. I was so naïve.”

Alexa Nizam reckons Amazon should have gone with a more obscure name (Alexa Nizam)

She says she’s heard every possible Alexa joke under the sun over the years, but revealed she really had a target on her back when working at a department store in 2018.

Nizam continued: “Within a few years, the mentions really picked up. At least once a day, a customer would make fun of my name. ‘What’s the weather today, Alexa?’

“‘What time is it, Alexa?’ Some would even say things like, ‘I bet you get those jokes all the time,’ as if they weren’t part of the onslaught themselves.”

She explained that she ‘couldn’t go a few hours’ without someone cracking a joke about her name – and it only got worse when the ‘Alexa, play Despacito’ meme came about.

Nizam said: “That cultural moment was the peak of my torment: I couldn’t introduce myself to anyone without having a dreaded Amazon moment.”

However, sharing the same name as Amazon’s gadget did allow her to come up with a good pun to write on her cap at her college graduation ceremony.

She went on: “I’d gone to college in Texas and planned to move back to my hometown of Los Angeles, so I decorated my grad cap to say, ‘Alexa, play ‘Going Back to Cali’.

“It felt like my one tiny win – if I had to be subjected to bad jokes for the better part of a decade, at least I could own the narrative for a brief, shining moment.”

She’s heard every ‘Alexa’ joke you can imagine over the years (Getty Stock Photo)

Still, her first name caused chaos throughout her daily life – especially during the pandemic, when everyone was constantly on Zoom calls.

According to Nizam, any mention of her name on one of these calls resulted in pandemonium, as a string of virtual assistants would start going off in the background.

She’s still dealing with that issue these days too, however, she is now ‘back to loving her name again’.

“If anything, being able to say ‘Alexa, like the Amazon robot’ makes it more memorable when I meet new people,” Nizam joked.

“It’s actually helped cut back on the misnomers I used to get all the time: Alexis, Alexia, and Alex are (mostly) a thing of the past.”

But she still believes that Amazon should have chosen a ‘more obscure name’ for its product, pointing out that the company’s competitors have avoided regular names with their personal assistant devices.