Using an before a name but its a name used for an inanimate object. It just sounds off to me but is it the actual proper way of writing?

<American English> Using "an" instead of "a" goes before any noun or noun phrase that starts with a vowel sound. In this case, Alexa isn't really a name, it's a brand being used an adjective (routine is the noun, Alexa is describing the routine). You will see this used elsewhere, often with the actual noun being described dropped altogether - the office printers being referred to as "the HP" and "the Canon", for example. Or calling the local fast-food place "the Wendy's". *Please use the HP for printing reports and multi-copy jobs.* *While we were driving to Iowa, we stopped at a Wendy's for lunch.* *My in-laws bought us an Alexa as a housewarming gift.*

You use “an” instead of “a” before anything that starts with a vowel (a,e,i,o,u). It doesn’t matter if what follows is a proper noun or not, or an adjective. And yes; it does sound normal to a native english speaker. If you say “I have a Alexa routine” it not only sounds a bit off, but it produces an awkward connection between “a” and the beginning of “Alexa” since there is no consonant sound in between the two pronounced a-sounds.

Do you mean the “an Alexa routine” part? It would sound much less natural to say “a Alexa”. In fact in this case “Alexa” has become a bit of a name for the device itself, someone could “buy mom an Alexa”.

No, that's right. The "a" turns into an "an" simply to space out the vowels when the following word starts with a vowel. For example: "Ugh! I wasn't planning on dealing with an Andrew fuck-up today at work again!" I myself am working on French and it's similarly odd to me that consonants glob onto people's names in French when they start with vowels as well. Like French would be something like "L'Alexa Routine" (or actually 'la routine d'Alexa') so someone named Alexa is getting referred to as *La-lex-a* or *Da-lex-a* in that situation. It seems like it'd be mean to name your kid something that starts with a vowel in French because they'll be getting a lot of S, T, L, or D added to their names.

The use of Alexa in "an Alexa Routine" is an unusual feature in English where you are using a noun (in this case "Alexa") as an adjective to modify or describe another ("Routine"). Similar examples are things like "car wash", a place where you clean your car. For history on this, in rural England they have a passage across a small river where they direct sheep to cross the river in order to clean them, it is called a "sheep wash". Grocery store, Garbage truck, etc. I am not certain but I believe this phenomenon comes from German grammar where they stick many words together into one to make a descriptive term. [https://englishgrammarclub.com/nouns-as-adjectives/](https://englishgrammarclub.com/nouns-as-adjectives/)

Any chance you could offer some examples? I can’t think of anything that would be wrong with using “an” before a noun that starts with a vowel sound. —— I ate an apple while driving around town in an Alfa Romeo. I was still hungry, so we stopped at an Amy’s Pretzels to pick up some additional snacks. Sadly, I found an ant on an Artichoke-flavored pretzel. I squashed it with an ACME anvil.

Give examples. It's all about context.

Alexa in this case is an object, an object we personify because of the name it has and it’s “voice”

Are you referring to "Create an Alexa Routine"? If so, yes, that's correct. It doesn't matter whether "Alexa Routine" is inanimate or not.

The indef article is used because the noun "routine" is countable; the fact it's modified by another noun doesn't really change anything, except for making it "an" instead of "a".

"an" is referring to "Alexa Routine" not "Alexa". You create "a routine".

It sure is. Consider that I’m replying to you right now on an Apple phone. The “an” is correct before any proper noun beginning with a vowel sound.