For 4 Seattle women called Alexa, it’s funny, frustrating to share name with Amazon device

Since Amazon introduced the Alexa-enabled Echo device in 2014, the jokes have become so omnipresent that Alexa Philbeck, 29, briefly considered changing, or at least obscuring, her name.

“If I introduced myself, people assumed my name was Melissa or Alyssa,” she says, “Now when I introduce myself … I’ll say, ‘My name’s Alexa,’ and then sometimes I’ll say, ‘Like the Amazon Echo.’ ”