The Art of Creating the Right Name: Lexicon Branding's Approach

David Plasik's experience with naming Vercel demonstrates how linguistic science and strategic thinking combine to create names that give companies asymmetric advantages in the marketplace.

Situation

• Lexicon Branding was tasked with creating a name for a technology company (previously Zeit) that needed a distinctive identity
• The client team was confident and innovative, giving Lexicon permission to create something bold and new
• The name needed to reflect the company's core function of accelerating client performance
• The marketplace was crowded with descriptive, forgettable technology names

Actions

Strategic Approach

• Focused on creating an experience rather than just a word
• Applied linguistic science to select letters with specific sound qualities
• Used "processing fluency" principles to ensure the name would be easy for brains to process
• Combined familiar word fragments to create something new yet accessible

Linguistic Engineering

• Selected the letter 'V' deliberately for its qualities of being "alive and vibrant"
• Combined recognizable fragments that carried meaningful associations:
  • "Ver" - connects to concepts like "vino veritas" (truth in wine) and "verde" (green)
  • "Sel" - suggests acceleration, which aligned with the product's function
• Created a "coin solution" - a new word built from familiar components
• Ensured the name had strong "signal" quality through its distinctive sound pattern

Results

• The client team quickly embraced the name, recognizing its strategic value
• Vercel became a successful brand that stands out in the technology landscape
• The name provided both immediate differentiation and long-term cumulative advantage
• The name's vibrant quality aligned perfectly with the company's bold, opinionated approach

Key Lessons

• Create experiences, not just words: Names should evoke feelings and behaviors, not just describe functions
• Seek productive discomfort: The best names often create polarization and tension initially
• Leverage sound symbolism: Different letters carry inherent qualities (V = vibrant, B = reliable, Z = noisy)
• Balance novelty with processing fluency: Effective names are distinctive yet easy for the brain to process
• Build with familiar fragments: Combining recognizable word parts creates names that feel both new and accessible
• Match sound to personality: A vibrant-sounding name like Vercel works for a confident, innovative company
• Think long-term: A name will be used more often and for longer than any other brand element