Babies named Alexa

Babies named Alexa retreating from American birth certificates as IRS audit volume also retreats. Two completely unrelated declines on opposite sides of completely different government agencies, sharing a window because both were quietly diminishing in the same eight years.

The Alexa baby name fell sharply after Amazon's Echo (2014) made the word a default smart-speaker prompt; parents quietly stopped choosing the name as it became the family's voice command. IRS audits completed have declined steadily across this window as agency budget constraints and staffing shortages reduced enforcement capacity, with the audit rate falling to historic lows before the 2022 funding bill. Two completely unrelated declines sharing a window because the same nine years quietly diminished an old name and an old enforcement function.

A name and an audit, both rarer. The decade was quietly thinning out incumbents.