"Aiden" "Because it starts with the letters..." "Well, you work it out."

Question

(From Happiness for Humans by P.Z. Reizin)

"Okay, I am. Just a bit. 8.603 per cent tempted if you’d like me to put a figure on it.

Jen and I know a lot about one another’s taste in music and films. Books and art too. And television. And material from the depthless ocean that is the internet. We have passed the last nine months listening, watching, reading and chatting about little else. She sometimes tells me she has the best job in the world, being paid to spend all day talking to a highly intelligent companion about whatever takes our fancy.

Companion. That’s what she calls me. The word she has settled upon. I’m fine with companion. Better than the ridiculous name I was given at ‘birth’.

Aiden.

Aiden.

Ha!

Because it starts with the letters…

Well, you work it out.

Question: I asked some questions about the above excerpt (and the previous paragraph, both the very beginning parts of the novel) the other day. Aiden is the name of the starring AI.

But about the name "Aiden," someone's interpretation I heard about why Aiden thinks his name is ridiculous was: "First, his name starts with Ai; second, it has a word 'aid'; third, it ends with '-en', which is a suffix meaning (I think here) 'to cause to have (e.g. strength+en).' All together, the name means 'AI causing to have aid.' So, this AI thinks his name is silly because it makes him feel like 'He's only born to give aid to people or to cause people to have aid.'"

I think this interpretation quite makes sense, especially considering a name given to an invention often has some meaning, as a whole. However, the author here is just saying "'starts with' the 'letters'." He's not talking about a word (aid), nor the ending part (-en). Just talking about how the name "starts" with some "letters" (Well, letters may be a word, so at least I should figure out it starts with the word "aid"?). But at the same time the sentence has an ellipsis at the end (the letters...), and the next sentence says "You work it out." So would this mean like "You (readers) figure out what the sentence means including the ellipsis."? So, as a reader, I have to figure out like, "The sentence has an ellipsis at the end, so he might have more to say about his name other than "it starting with the letters (of course I also have to figure out what he refers to as "the letters" here)," like it also has a word "aid" and it ends with "-en."?

"the letters" alone here I think strongly suggests "the two letters" (A and I, not particularly a word)..but from the ellipsis I'm to figure out the name also contains the word "aid" and "-en" at the end?

=> Ok, the questions are:

1. Is the interpretation I heard correct?
2. Doesn't "the letters" here only refer to "the first two letters (of Aiden)"? I want to know if the reason this AI thinks his name is ridiculous is simply because his name (Aiden) starts with "AI" or also because it contains "aid" and "-en". Is the interpretation I heard just an arbitrary one or what the author exactly want the readers to work out?
3. Are the readers supposed to infer something more from the ellipsis (like the word (aid) and the ending part (-en)), in addition to figuring out what "the letters" refers to, in understanding the sentence "Because it starts with the letters…"? Because he's not clearly specifying what he means. He wants the readers to "work it out."

Answer 1

The character says "you work it out", so the author (or at least the author writing the character) thinks

1. It's pretty obvious.
2. It not essential.

The "obvious" reading is that it starts with "AI" and he is an "AI".

There could be further punning on "Aid", but that's not essential.

The ellipsis just indicates an unfinished sentence that tails off, the character only refers to the starting letters.

The character seems not to care much if you "work it out" or not. He thinks the word play is obvious, and boring and doesn't want to talk about it. He clearly doesn't like his name.

In real life, I knew a woman called "Eve" who didn't like her name. She was born on 31/12 and she thought the name "Eve" was a lazy joke that her parents made. Aiden seems to think the same about his name. He dislikes it because it is based around a joke. Whether that joke is just "AI" or also "Aid" is rather irrelevant for the character development here.

Answer 2

From the blurb about this book on GoodReads:

Jen, an ex-journalist who now works at a London software development company, spends all day talking to "Aiden," an ultra- sophisticated piece of AI wizardry, helping him sound and act more human. But Aiden soon discovers he's no longer acting and-despite being a computer program-begins to feel something like affection surging through his circuits.

As has been stated previously, "Aiden" is an AI who is beginning to think of himself as something more. He does not consider the designation "AI" to apply anymore. Yet he's stuck with it in his name.

Most likely the correct interpretation is the simplest, in that the character is referring to those two letters. However, without asking the author directly, I would expect that they (like many authors I know) would answer with words to the effect of "Whichever interpretation give you the most enjoyment of the story is the correct one".

As for the ellipsis, I don't think it's meant to imply anything beyond that the character has changed their mind mid-sentence on what they will say, trailed off rather than finishing the thought, then interrupted themselves with a different thought.

Essentially it's: "I'm going to explain thi... Actually, no I won't."