Trademarks Lexis and Lexus (was nexis is baffling)

[Dave Wilton]

Ben Zimmer wrote:
>Fun fact: When Esso/Enco/Humble Oil needed a consolidated company
>name, they enlisted the help of the late Dmitri Borgmann, the father
>of recreational linguistics (author of _Language on Vacation_ and
>_Beyond Language_ and founding editor of the magazine _Word Ways_).
>The story goes that he was hired to come up with an eye-catching name
>unlike any word in the English language, yet still reminiscent of
>"Esso".  He offered "Exxon", unique since no English word contains two
>consecutive x's.

Do you have any source for this? This is not the standard account for how
"Exxon" was chosen. According to the usual story, the name was generated by
a computer (one of the first such uses of computers in marketing) based on a
number of criteria (2 syllables, had to start with E and have and O in the
second syllable and have a double consonant (not necessarily a double X) so
it resembled "Esso," had to be free of other trademarks worldwide, etc.).
Six words, out of over 10,000 originally generated, met the criteria and
after extensive market testing "Exxon" was chosen.

The reason for the change was that the 1911 court ruling that broke up
Standard Oil prohibited the "baby Standards" from using their own names
outside of their regions. Esso (Standard Oil of New Jersey) therefore, could
only market in 19 states under its own name. By changing its name to Exxon,
the company could have a single brand throughout the US. At about the same
time, other baby Standards made similar changes: Standard Oil of California
became Chevron; Standard Oil of Indiana became Amoco; and Standard Oil of
New York became Mobil.

Because the 1911 ruling affected only the US, Esso continued to be used
(still is?) in Europe and elsewhere. And Exxon keeps a handful of service
stations in the US under the Esso name to keep the trademark alive.
Occasionally you will see one.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org