16. The method as recited in claim 15 , wherein the match is a minimum distance match.
15. A method comprising: under control of one or more computer systems configured with executable instructions, receiving an audio input including a first candidate word for evaluation as a wake word that activates functionality of a computing device; determining a plurality of values from wake word metrics for the first candidate word, wherein the plurality of values includes a false alarm count value that is determined for the first candidate word by: comparing a phone sequence of the first candidate word to a plurality of phone sequences obtained from speech recognition results; determining a match for each of the plurality of phone sequences obtained from speech recognition results; and determining a count of phone sequences obtained from speech recognition results that have a match below a threshold level; and determining an overall score for the first candidate word based at least in part on the plurality of values.