A six-year-old girl named Alexa at birth is getting a new name and a chance to ward off mean bullies after she was relentlessly tormented for sharing her name with Amazon's virtual assistant.
The child formerly known as Alexa was born around the same time that the household device started hitting shelves, meaning her unsuspecting parents were none the wiser about what cruel treatment she would receive once she got to school.
As the devices became more and more popular, the bullying grew worse and worse, with her peers even giving her commands.
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Her parents even remember a creepy stranger jeering "Alexa, dance for me!" after he overheard their daughter's name.
Eventually the taunting became too much and Alexa, from Goettingen, Germany, couldn't handle the constant teasing anymore, so her parents applied to officially change her name by deed poll.
Although the couple’s first attempt to change the youngster's name was turned down by city officials in Goettingen, they took the case to the city's Administrative Court.
There, the worried parents told the court that the girl's peers would give her "Alexa" commands in the playground and even when she was at the swimming pool.
Court officials found the girl had been "emotionally burdened" by her name and at long last, the battle was over, and her parents were given permission to choose a new name for the long-suffering child.
"The name is not only apt to form a pun, but rather invites the issuing of insulting and demeaning orders," the court found.
Alexa's new name has not been revealed in local media, but as long as her parents steer clear of Siri, life at school should be plain sailing for the youngster from now on.
Amazon reported in January 2019 that more than 100 million Alexa devices had been sold.
And in 2020, Amazon estimated that 25% of households in the US had at least one Alexa device, with 27% of Prime customers having one of the voice-activated assistants at home, according to The Verge.
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