When you are building something as new and unusual as “soul tech,” you end up spending a lot of late nights debating names. You want something that feels alive, human, and memorable. You want it to hint at the poetry of photography and reflection while still standing up in the world of AI. We tried a few names before we landed on the one that stuck.
At first we called the company Aeterna. It had a kind of Roman gravitas to it, which we liked, but it also had a big problem. Nobody could spell it. You could almost hear the frustrated Google searches: “Eterna? Aterna? Iterna?” Not great for SEO.
Then we tried EternaMe. At the time it sounded clever, almost futuristic. But the more we built our product the more we realized it wasn’t about “me.” It was about connection, about capturing voices, stories, and memories, and sharing them across generations. “EternaMe” made it sound like a selfie app with delusions of grandeur.
That is when we found ourselves circling back to something older, more tangible, and frankly more soulful. The Reflekta camera.
The Reflekta was a German-made twin-lens reflex camera introduced in the late 1930s by Franke & Heidecke and later by other East German manufacturers. It was simple, boxy, and designed to make photography accessible. Unlike the fancier Rolleiflex, the Reflekta was built for everyday people who wanted to capture their world.
Photographers would look down through the viewfinder and see the world reflected back at them on a ground-glass screen. That act of peering into a reflection, of framing a memory before it passed, is what made the Reflekta so special. Families used it to capture birthdays, graduations, and ordinary afternoons. Soldiers carried it through wartime. Artists used it to experiment with light and shadow.
It was never the most famous camera. It was not the Leica or the Hasselblad. But it had charm. It democratized photography, giving everyday people the ability to reflect their lives back into images that could last.
When we saw the word Reflekta again, it felt right. Our company is not building cameras, but we are doing something strangely similar. We are building ways to reflect a person’s essence back to their family and friends through AI. Just as a Reflekta camera could freeze a moment in time, Reflekta the company is about capturing stories, voices, and wisdom so they can be shared long after the moment itself has passed.
Photography taught us that reflection can be art, memory, and technology all at once. AI is teaching us that reflection can now be interactive, almost alive. That is the heart of soul tech. It is not about machines replacing people, but about technology becoming a mirror that helps us remember, celebrate, and stay connected.
So yes, we retired Aeterna. We waved goodbye to EternaMe. And we welcomed Reflekta. It is easy to spell, fun to say, and rooted in history. It nods to photography, memory, and reflection. It makes room for humor too. Every time someone mispronounces it as “Reflecto,” we just smile and say, “Close enough. It still works.”
In the end, names matter because they carry stories. And if you think about it, the old Reflekta camera and our new AI platform are trying to do the same thing. Capture stories. Hold onto them. Reflect them back with warmth.
That is why we chose Reflekta.