The name Siri came from the original company's name which, in turn, came from the founder's desire to name his daughter after a female Norwegian coworker of the

The name Siri came from the original company's name which, in turn, came from the founder's desire to name his daughter after a female Norwegian coworker of the same name [1]. Cortana is a female AI character from the Halo series. Of course in neither case does that mean they had to keep the gender the same for those reasons but it would appear the simplest explanation. [1] http://theweek.com/articles/476851/how-apples-siri-got-name http://theweek.com/articles/476851/how-apples-siri-got-name