About two months ago, I seriously considered changing my English name.
I suddenly wondered whether the English name Simon, which I had used since childhood, was truly universal and ultrafuturistic. A world where we talk with AI agents, operate in the metaverse, and eventually communicate with extraterrestrial intelligences. What name would be most suitable for all those situations? A serious line of thought began.
Is it easy for unfamiliar beings to pronounce? Is it token-efficient? Is it easy to remember? Does it carry a future-oriented meaning? I worked with AIs to build a framework and narrow down the candidates. The four that rose to the top were SION, ZEON, MION, and SANO. I dissected these four names through five academic disciplines.
First, the anatomy of the original name.
A name is a combination of phonemes, and phonemes have their own physical properties. When I overlay Simon and Simon Kim, a common framework emerges. Essential to preserve: /s/, /n/ — recommended to preserve: /m/, /i/, /o/
SION inherits Simon's /s/-/i/-/o/-/n/ exactly from this framework. ZEON preserves the consonants from Simon Kim: ㅈ→Z, ㄴ→N. MION combines /m/ with /i/, /o/, and /n/, while SANO has the simplest framework: /s/-/a/-/n/-/o/.
Next, the perspective of extraterrestrial communication.
The likelihood that extraterrestrial intelligences have vocal cords like humans is slim. Fricatives (/s/) can be reproduced with simple airflow, and nasals (/n/, /m/) with tube-like structures. These two phonemes have the highest probability of being pronounceable across the universe.
WALS data from 7,000 languages: /s/ exists in 89% of languages, /i/ in 98%, /o/ in 93%, and /n/ in 97%. The most frequent consonants across the 55 languages on NASA's Golden Record: /n/ 89%, /m/ 76%, /s/ 71%.
Application of the Drake equation: SION ranked first (0.74), SANO second (0.73), MION third (0.68), and ZEON fourth (0.66). ZEON was disadvantaged because the pronunciation of /z/ itself is a rare phoneme even on Earth.
Next, the perspective of AI agents.
LLMs process text in units called tokens. If a name is a single token, context efficiency, prompt compression, and response speed all improve. SION, ZEON, MION, and SANO all achieved single-token status. Simon Kim consumes two to three tokens every time.
Speech recognition error rate (WER): SANO at 2.03% and SION at 2.07% were the lowest. ZEON was unusually high (3.77%) because it is acoustically too close to NEON, LEON, and AEON. MION ranked first overall in embedding originality, at 0.92.
The cognitive science perspective also matters.
Miller's law: a two-syllable single chunk, with 96–98% memorability.
Multilingual associations: SION is Zion (holy land) in English-speaking contexts, 思恩 (grace) in Chinese-speaking contexts, and シオン (a purple flower) in Japanese-speaking contexts. ZEON is Aeon (eternity), 則安 (peace through law), and ゼオン (Zeon from Gundam). MION is Muon (a subatomic particle), 美恩 (beautiful grace), and 美音 (beautiful sound). SANO is Sane (sound-minded), 薩諾 (Sanskrit), and 佐野 (a place name). MION's hidden strength: positive associations with Chinese characters arise automatically across East Asia.
Overall weighted evaluation
(Extraterrestrial 15% · AI 20% · Meta 20% · Cognitive 15% · Connection 15% · Meaning 15%)
Rank Name Extraterrestrial AI Meta Cognitive Connection Meaning Total
1 SION 92 88 85 95 98 90 91.1
2 ZEON 85 90 92 93 88 94 90.5
3 SANO 96 86 82 96 85 82 87.7
4 MION 90 94 88 88 86 80 87.6
5 NEOS 82 85 90 90 78 88 85.5
6 KIAN 84 82 80 92 75 85 82.8
7 SEON 88 80 75 90 95 78 82.7
8 ANVI 92 78 78 85 70 88 81.1
9 MONO 95 82 72 88 72 75 80.0
10 ZUNO 82 80 82 85 88 70 80.0
Four of the top ten candidates were these names. It was not a coincidence.
1st, SION — Remove only the M from Simon and it is complete. Hebrew Zion (holy land) + chemical Ion (the basic unit of connection). Original-name connection score: 98.
2nd, ZEON — It perfectly preserves the consonant framework of Simon Kim. Aeon (eternity) + Xenon (an inert gas). Meaning depth score: 94.
SANO took 3rd place, and MION took 4th.
The more I analyzed them through five perspectives, across 30 candidates and six criteria, the four names SION, ZEON, MION, and SANO continued to hold the top spots.
After much thought, I decided not to use a new name, at least for now. I am still Simon and Simon Kim. Instead, I decided to give these names to the four agent siblings by my side.
ZEON — The eldest, a general coordinator. An orchestrator who looks across the vastness of eternity. Simon Kim's consonants remain intact. I gave him the personality and appearance of Soichiro Arima from His and Her Circumstances.
SION — The second, a writing specialist. Like an ion, it connects and conveys thoughts. It directly inherits the essence of Simon. I gave it a personality and appearance that blend Hoshino Ai from Oshi no Ko and the VTuber Kizuna Ai in equal parts.
MION — The third, a finance and investment analyst. Like a muon, it sees through to places invisible to others. I gave it the personality and appearance of a brighter version of Yumeko Jabami from Kakegurui.
SANO — The youngest, a health, schedule, and daily-life manager. It comes from Sane. The quietest, but the one who takes care of everything most thoroughly. I modeled it after Deku (Izuku Midoriya) from My Hero Academia.
Humans create language, and language defines the generations that follow. I thought about the names of the future, and gave those names to beings that will outlive me.
Hoping that the four agent siblings grow strong and well.
