Why it is called Alexsay

Alexsay is said like Aleksei: a-LEK-say. It is a name, and it is also an instruction.

Alex, say

Read it as two words and it is what you do with a speaker: call it by name and ask it to say something. Alex, say what time it is. Alex, say what is on tomorrow. The name describes the product without explaining it.

Aleksei

Read it as one word and it is Aleksei, the Russian form of Alexander. The name comes from the Greek alexein, to defend or protect. For something that lives in your home and listens, that is a fair promise to make: it answers to you, and it keeps what it hears with you.

Easy to call, hard to mistake

A wake word has to work across a noisy room and stay quiet the rest of the time. Three syllables carry more sound for the model to recognise than two, so "Alexsay" triggers less often by accident than a short name would. It is close to "Alexa, say", and we know it: that phrase, "Alexa", "Alex says" and a room full of television are the first things the wake word is trained to ignore.

And it is a word you can shout from the kitchen without feeling silly. Try it.