A Few Lessons on Naming from X’s Latest Release: Grok

In brand agencies, naming is a bit like Marmite. Some people love working on it - others hate it.

Naming is a subtle art, right at the intersection of strategy and design. Naming projects often require persistence, cultural flair and good storytelling skills. That’s because the formulaic approach most agencies sell almost always runs into hurdles when it becomes clear that naming is as creative as it is strategic. A name is personal. It’s not a word one can choose from a list of criteria alone.

In any given career, it’s likely that a CEO or a CMO will have to go through a naming exercise. Most of the time, it’s part of a bigger change - a small line in the scope. But naming is the tip of the iceberg. The most visible, static signal of what a company is about.  

Enter Elon Musk. Earlier this year, he renamed Twitter to 'X', a long-favourite name of his. X symbolised a new ambition for the platform formerly known as Twitter: to become an everything app. Much has been written about it, but this isn’t about X. It's about its latest release: 'Grok', X’s AI tool. 

As a non-native English speaker, I must admit that the first time I read about Grok online, I paused for a moment. I repeatedly found myself saying Grok in my head, trying to figure out how the hell I was supposed to pronounce it. Then, I asked my (British) partner, without context, how she’d pronounce 'grok', and more importantly, what it meant. She turned to me with a blank stare.

Let’s take a step back for a second. Naming and counting are the two most basic behaviours in our brain. We have used both for centuries, from counting cattle to identifying people. Counting is basically a system of separation and analysis. Naming, on the contrary, creates associations. It anchors someone, or something, into a contextual meaning. 

A common mistake people often make as part of naming is to choose a name to which we want to attach meaning. But naming isn’t an exercise in choosing words. Naming is origins. It’s the backstory, the provenance, the DNA that helps us place someone - something in context. So, when looking for a brand name, you must surrender to the meaning you’re after first, then let the word find its way to the story. Not the other way around. 

So, let’s come back to Grok. It’s grown on me. Yes, intuitively the word felt wrong; its melody is harsh, hasty. Four letters for only one vowel. The sound of 'Gr' is aggressive. It has none of the softer tones that draw people in, make it feel friendly (a technique often used for new technologies). It has none of the usual thropes of intelligence (cog-, sm-) or technology (-ly; -fy). It has none of the familiar fluency of a Facebook, Robin Hood, Uber or Coinbase. 

So, why? Because it has a story at its heart. A story that manifests itself in the experience of using Grok. To name is to choose one universe to draw from. Grok, the technology, is modelled after the classic comedy science-fiction radio show and book by Douglas Adams, 'The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy'. Grok, the name, is a verb coined by science fiction writer Robert Heinlein meaning 'to understand thoroughly and intuitively or with empathy'. They feed from each other. Strategic and creative harmony. 

They also both indicate what experience you can expect, and what role X sees AI playing in the future. Because it’s using X data and modelled on a sci-fi story, it is interacting in a different way with users than its main competitors, Bard and ChatGPT. It has a different tone, personality that feels more human in some respects (flawed, not for everyone and prone to overstatement), and is more contextual, because it leverages the behaviours we observe on Twitter/X (for better or worse). 

It’s not grown on me because it’s some sort of exercise in spiritual branding beauty, or a private joke for sci-fi fans (which I’m not). It’s grown on me because it’s a solid piece of directional strategy for the business, the brand and the product.  

In Grok, these different parts of the business can find a core idea to rally behind. It pushes teams to build the experience and the brand around intuition over perfection, rapport over execution and emotion over function.

We said 'to name is to choose one universe to draw from'. That’s only 50% true; to name is also to indicate a universe to create. With Grok, X hints at a new, more aspiring ambition for AI. A world where AI isn’t just better productivity, but a source of inspiration and creativity. It creates a universe that’s not occupied by competitors and can capture the imagination of users. 

Whether or not we believe Musk is the right person, or X the right company to do that - that is another topic. But as far as naming goes, I see a brand that puts meaning first.