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Gordonw

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 9, 2011
34
0
Has anyone else had a problem with Siri recognizing the name Jean. I have my all relations set up in my contacts, including my sister Jean. When I tell Siri to text my sister without specifying a name, it will ask which sister and properly say their name. If I tell Siri to text my sister Jean, Siri for some odd reason spells it Gene and therefore doesn't know who my sister Gene is. Of course if I say her full name, Siri knows whom I'm referring to.
Will Siri at some point learn over time that my sister is Jean and not Gene? The funny part is the only way I got Siri to recognize my sister Jean is I had to add the name Gene in the phonetic first name field. :D
 

LIVEFRMNYC

macrumors G3
Oct 27, 2009
8,776
10,838
Siri probably only recognizes the french pronunciation of Jean. Try pronouncing Jean as "shahn" and see what happens.
 

Airmark1

macrumors regular
Jul 26, 2008
194
0
Ali is always to Allie. Same but different. I have to say Ollie to get Ali. But I'm still happy
 

dizzy130

macrumors member
Jul 7, 2010
92
0
Siri can't find my friend Katie. She says "I can't find Katie in your contacts" every time. She even transcribes it spelled the same as I have her saved in my contacts too, it's not like I have her spelled Katie and Siri is searching for Katy or Kati. Funny thing is, she recognizes my friends with long Indian names perfectly. Even if she transcribes then phonetically at first, she figures it out after she processes. But she can never find Katie, whether I use her last name or not.
 

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2008
619
13
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Use the phonetic name field and use Siri to enter the value of the field.

http://howto.cnet.com/8301-11310_39-20124840-285/how-to-improve-siri-by-using-phonetic-names/
 

Kalaheo

macrumors member
Jul 13, 2009
40
0
Interesting. My wife found out today Siri doesn't understand my name. It's even the most common name - Joe! It came out as gel, cheryl, joey, joel. We determined she'll just have to say "my husband." Oh, well. Not that big a deal.

Edit: I have a friend named Jean, and Siri understood me. Do you mind trying the name Joe?
 

austinguy23

macrumors 6502a
Oct 8, 2008
619
13
Interesting. My wife found out today Siri doesn't understand my name. It's even the most common name - Joe! It came out as gel, cheryl, joey, joel. We determined she'll just have to say "my husband." Oh, well. Not that big a deal.

Edit: I have a friend named Jean, and Siri understood me. Do you mind trying the name Joe?

No, just read my post above yours. Problem solved.
 

Gordonw

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 9, 2011
34
0
This is really odd. As I mentioned previously, when I say "send a message to my sister Jean", Siri spells it Gene and says she doesn't who my sister is. I can get it to work if I say her complete name or add Gene as a phonetic first name. Just discovered that if I leave out sister and just say "send a message to Jean", Siri spells it correctly and understands who I'm referring to since she's the only Jean in my contact app. I don't get why the word sister can cause such confusion.
 

gentlefury

macrumors 68030
Jul 21, 2011
2,866
23
Los Angeles, CA
Interesting. My wife found out today Siri doesn't understand my name. It's even the most common name - Joe! It came out as gel, cheryl, joey, joel. We determined she'll just have to say "my husband." Oh, well. Not that big a deal.

Edit: I have a friend named Jean, and Siri understood me. Do you mind trying the name Joe?

The solution I have found for improper name recognition is to use their last name. Last names tend to be a bit more unique and easier to distinguish. As with all voice recog systems, the more complex a word the easier it is to narrow down. Which is why it has no problem with complex foreign names.
 

Gordonw

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 9, 2011
34
0
Is Jean marked as your sister in contacts?

Yes she is marked as my sister in my info. Now there is no problem with my other sister. It just seems to be an issue with using sister and Jean together.
 

britboyj

macrumors 6502a
Apr 8, 2009
814
1,086
Siri pronounces "Stonebriar" as "Stun-uh-bree-arr"

It is highly annoying, considering it's my local Apple Store.
 
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