It may be a household name now, but the first time Steve Jobs heard the word "Siri," he wasn't sold. That's according to Dag Kittalaus, the Norwegian cocreator of the iPhone 4S' famed virtual assistant, who offered new details this week on how the technology was named, and how it seduced the late Apple founder. Today, 87 percent of iPhone 4S owners say they use Siri each month. But how did the increasingly famous digital assistant end up with her unique name? Read on:

　　现在Siri是一个家喻户晓的名字，然而当史蒂夫·乔布斯第一次听到“Siri”这个词时，他却并不买账。这是Dag Kittalausz说的，这位挪威人与乔布斯一起创造研发了这个因iPhone4s而成名的虚拟助手。本周，Dag就Siri技术如何命名提供了更多新细节，并说明了Siri如何成功征服已故的苹果公司创始人的。如今，87%iPhone4S用户表示，他们每月都会使用Siri。但这个越来越出名的电子助手到底为何最终被命名为Siri呢?请读下文：

　　Who came up with the name? Kittalaus did. As he revealed at a startup conference in Chicago this week, he planned to name his daughter Siri after a former coworker (in Norwegian, Siri means "beautiful woman who leads you to victory") and even registered the domain Siri.com. Then he and his wife had a son, and the website was shelved. But when Kittalaus was ready to launch his splashy speech recognition technology, he resurrected Siri. "Consumer companies need to focus on the fact that the name is easy to spell [and] easy to say," he said.

　　谁想出了这个名字?是Kittalaus。本周他在芝加哥的一个启动会议上透露称，Siri是他的一位前同事的名字，他本计划给他的女儿取名叫Siri(在挪威语中，Siri的意思是“可以指引你夺取胜利的美丽女人”)，他甚至注册了域名为Siri的网站。然而之后他的妻子怀了一个儿子，这个网站便被搁置起来了。但当Kittalaus准备推出自己的引人注目的语音识别技术，他又重新启用了Siri。“消费品企业需要注意到这个名字很容易拼写，并朗朗上口”他说。

　　How did Apple get involved? Siri, Inc. was incorporated in 2007, and the technology was launched as an IOS app available in the Apple Store in early 2010; plans were in the works to make the software available for the Blackberry and Android phones. Things changed when Kittalaus, then the start-ups's CEO, received a call three weeks later from Steve Jobs.

　　苹果公司如何涉足进来?Siri的公司于2007年注册成立，该技术在2010年初被作为一种可在Apple Store上使用的IOS应用程序推出，原本的计划是让Siri可用于黑莓和Android手机。但三个星期后，当作为这个初创公司CEO的Kittalaus收到来自史蒂夫·乔布斯的电话的时候，事情发生了变化。

　　Then what happened? The Apple CEO flew Kittalaus to his home in Cupertino, CA, where the two had a three-hour chat in front of Jobs' fireplace about the future of technology. "And, you know, he talked about why Apple was going to win, and we talked about how Siri was doing," said Kittalaus. "He felt that we cracked it." Apple went on to purchase Siri for $200 million in April 2010, ending plans to make it available for rival operating systems. There was one problem, however — Jobs wasn't fond of the name.

　　后续发展如何?苹果CEO带着Kittalaus飞到他在加利福尼亚州库比蒂诺的家，在那里他们两人在乔布斯的壁炉前对技术的未来进行了三个小时的畅谈。“而且，你要知道，他谈到了为什么苹果会赢，我们也谈了Siri的现状，”Kittalaus说。“他觉得我们把它糟蹋了。“在2010年4月，苹果公司以2亿美金的价格收购了Siri，终结了让竞争机型可以使用它的原计划。然而，仍然还有一个问题——乔布斯不喜欢这个名字。

　　Why didn't Jobs change the name? Kittalaus, who worked for Apple until October 2011, tried to convince the notoriously hardheaded Jobs that Siri was a great name. But in the end, the company stuck with the name for a more straightforward reason: No one could dream up anything better. (According to Wikipedia, the name is now also used as shorthand for "Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface.") "Jobs was similarly on the fence about the names 'iMac' and 'iPod,' but failed to find a better option," says Leslie Horn at PC World. But it seems Kittalaus was right about Siri. Today, she's an indelible part of pop culture, and a benchmark other companies are trying to top.

　　为什么乔布斯没有改名字?一直在苹果公司工作到2011年10月的Kittalaus，不断试图说服乔布斯这个臭名昭著的死脑经，让认同Siri的是一个很棒的名字。但最终，公司以一种更加直截了当的原因接受了这个名字：没有人能想出更好的东西。(根据维基百科，这个名字现在也是“语音解释和识别接口”的简写)。莱斯利·霍恩在PC World上说：“因未能找到一个更好的选择，乔布斯也同样对“iMac”和“iPod”等产品的命名持模棱两可的中立态度。”但今日看来，似乎Kittalaus对于Siri的预计十分正确。如今，Siri是流行文化的一个不可或缺的一部分，是其他企业竞相模仿望其项背而不能及的一座标杆。

（编辑：何莹莹）