Can You Change Siri's Name? In-Depth Guide

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Siri is one of the most popular voice assistants out there, thanks to the iPhone’s popularity.

Due to its immense popularity and worldwide reach, Apple introduced features for Siri that improved its accessibility for all users, making it an easy service to pick up and use without any previous experience.

Features like the ability to change Siri’s gender, accent, and language have broadened the use case of Siri.

Moreover, as personalization touches, you can make Siri address you by the name of your choice, with the ability to correct the pronunciation of this set name.

Features like this make Siri an excellent voice assistant, and in this article, I will discuss these features and the steps to apply them to your Apple products.

You cannot change Siri’s name. However, you can change Siri’s voice and accent.

Users can have a male voice for their Siri and also select a suitable accent from a list of supported ones.

Users can also change what Siri calls them by setting their name or nickname for Siri to call them by.

Can You Change Siri’s Name?

No, you cannot change the name Siri as it represents the name of Apple’s service.

Apart from this limitation, you have access to an excellent plethora of features that make Siri a superb companion for your Apple devices.

How to Change Siri’s Gender?

Apple has provided the users with the choice of changing the voice of Siri, with the option to select the default female or a male voice.

The voices also differ according to the accent chosen, as different people have voiced the different accents of Siri.

However, by changing the accent, Siri might not work correctly in case of an accent mismatch.

This limitation, however, isn’t a dealbreaker, and you can customize and use Siri according to your requirements.

This feature is present in all of your Apple products, and I will describe the steps needed to make the changes for each.

For Apple HomePod users

You can change Siri’s voice on your Homepod through your iPhone.

1. Launch the Home App from your iPhone.
2. From the Favourite Accessories list, select the Homepod option.
3. Select the homepod you wish to make changes to, and press and hold.
4. Scroll down and tap the details option.
5. Find the Siri Tab from the menu.
6. Locate the Siri Voice option and select this.
7. There will be options to change Siri’s voice and accent from this submenu.
8. After making the required changes, you can exit the app.

For iPhone, iPad, and iPod users

The changes made to Siri in an iPhone will reflect across all the devices in the ecosystem, hence making this method the most efficient way to customize your Siri.

1. In the Settings Page, go to the Siri and Search option.
2. Select the Siri Voice option.
3. You can choose the required voice and accent here.
4. To check whether the changes have been applied, select the accent or gender option.
5. A default message will play from Siri, with the changes applied.
6. Exit Settings once you find the changes satisfactory.

For Apple Watch users

Your Apple Watch’s Siri settings are the same as your iPhone, so no extra steps are needed for this device.

For MacOS users

This feature is supported for devices running MacOS Sierra and up.

1. Open the Apple Menu, go to the system preferences tab and select Siri.
2. Select the Siri Voice option.
3. You can change the Gender of your Siri from this submenu.

How to Change Siri’s Accent?

Being one of the most popularly used voice assistants, Apple introduced accents for Siri, helping users worldwide have a more accessible Siri experience.

If Siri cannot recognize your accent, your commands will surely get misinterpreted, leading you to search manually.

By that point, the convenience offered by Siri would have gone irrelevant. 

After receiving feedback from its customers on the issue, Apple added accents to Siri to help its voice recognition skills reach a more diverse user base.

Siri talks in the accent of your choice, making the whole process more personalized.

Several of the other languages Siri knows also have support for different accents. 

Some are exclusive to specific languages, and overall the experience is very smooth and simple.

The feature is present on all of your Apple products, and I have described the steps to make this change for each.

For Apple HomePod users

Homepod users can change their Siri accent through their iPhone.

1. Open the Home App from your iPhone.
2. From your favorites list, select the Homepod option.
3. For users having multiple devices, select and hold the device you wish to make the change.
4. Go to the details option near the bottom.
5. Select the Siri option from this submenu.
6. You can change the accent from the Siri Voice tab here. Choose your preferred accent and exit the window.

For iPhone, iPad, and iPod users

Like the voice feature, any changes made to the Siri accent through your iPhone will reflect across your Apple ecosystem.

1. Open settings, go to Siri, and Search.
2. Scroll down to the Siri Voice Option.
3. You can change the accent in the dialect section.

For Apple Watch users

Like with the voice setting, the accent setting will also get synced when the change is made in your iPhone.

For MacOS users

Users running MacOS Sierra and up can modify their Siri accent.

1. Go to the Apple Menu, scroll down to the system preferences section, and select the option for Siri.
2. Scroll down to the dialect section to change your accent.
3. Select an accent of your choice and exit the window.

How to Change What Siri Calls You

For users looking to customize their Siri even more, you can set what Siri calls you.

You can use any name or nickname for this, and Siri will address you by the same.

It is a simple and straightforward feature, and it creates a much more friendly experience for the user.

You can easily set it with a simple voice command. However, you can also follow the traditional method via settings, which I’ve described below.

1. From your iPhone, open settings
2. Select Mail, Contacts, and Calendar option.
3. Select the My Info option.
4. You can add your personal contact information here.
5. Siri will now call you by the name provided in the personal contact information.

You can do the same setting change with a simple voice command. Follow the steps below:

1. Activate Siri by pressing your home button.
2. Ask Siri to call you by a specific name henceforth.
3. After Siri accepts this command, exit the window

Teach Siri How to Correctly Pronounce Your Name

Users having names with a more complex pronunciation might find Siri mispronouncing their names often.

Since Siri follows more of a text-to-speech function for such actions, mispronunciations are bound to occur.

Apple introduced a fix for this issue by letting users input their names’ phonetic spelling, thereby providing Siri the adequate data to pronounce your name correctly.

For users who got embarrassed when Siri butchered your names, this fix is a godsend.

The steps to apply this fix are quick and simple, and I’ve described them below.

1. From your iPhone, open settings.
2. Go to the Mail, Contacts, and Calendar option.
3. Select your name from the list shown, and press edit.
4. The system will display three options, among others, that fix the pronunciation issue.
5. Select the “Phonetic First Name” option to correct the pronunciation of your first name.
6. Similarly, you can use the “Phonetic Middle Name” and “Phonetic Last Name” options to fix your Middle and Last Names, respectively.
7. Apply the changes and exit the window.

Conclusion:

The abovementioned accessibility features show the expansion of Siri as a globally accepted service.

What makes Siri a great voice assistant is the extent to which you can modify according to your needs.

Limitations exist in its current state, as there is an evident lack of support for local languages.

However, there are many such languages, and it is practically impossible to implement all of this at once.

However, the rollout of more minor updates that improve the language catalog enhances recognition and makes the experience overall a much smoother one, and can improve Siri. 

Arguably, Siri is one of the factors that made the iPhone such a phenomenon, and I am excited to look forward to the future of Siri.

If you found this article helpful, do share it with your peers in need. Feel free to drop a comment regarding your queries and suggestions, as we strongly value your opinions.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can you make Siri swear?

Siri cannot swear on its own due to the various safety filters employed by Apple.

However, you can try by setting their name to something funny for Siri to call them by. It is undoubtedly worth a try.

Can I change Siri’s voice to a celebrity?

No, there are no celebrity voices for Siri as such. However, you can set different voices by changing the accents for your selected language.

It isn’t an equivalent fix, but still a nice feature for users looking for variety.

Is Siri dangerous?

Siri is a safe service to use, as Apple ensures tits users’ privacy above all. However, the possibility of security exploit happening is never zero, but it has significantly reduced over the past few years.

Does the iPhone 12 have Siri?

Yes, all modern Apple products have Siri integrated out of the box, and the iPhone 12 is no exception.

Users of the iPhone 12 can invoke Siri by long-pressing the right-side button or using the “Hey Siri” command.

Is Siri listening to me all the time?

Voice assistants like Siri require the microphone to be on all the time to activate the moment you tell the activation command.

Hence you can infer that Siri is listening to you all the time. However, none of the surrounding audio is being recorded unless Siri is invoked and you provide a query or command to Siri.

Apple utilizes your conversations with Siri to make Siri even better, but you can also opt out of this, thereby ensuring total privacy of your data.