Or take a lesson from languages where this isn't a religious question and do

    (defvar names (Vector String)
      #("Alex" "Kim" "Robin" "Sam"))
    (first names)

or if being flexible,

    (defvar names (Vector String)
      #("Alex" "Kim" "Robin" "Sam"))
    (elt names (lowbound names))

Bonus points for adding a macro or function, to make the second form available as first as well.