Zune is on everyone's lips these days, be it in a context of criticism or... Let's be fair, there is no or. But who do we have to give credit to for coming up with the name? Surprisingly enough, not Microsoft. If it would have been up to them, Zune would have been called Portable Windows Media Player, or something else equally dull and with corporate nuances.

Actually, the person that created the name isn't getting any credit at all. The Zune name originated within Lexicon Branding, a Sausalito-based branding company. BlackBerry, Pentium, PowerBook, and OnStar are among their impressive creations.

"The creative strategy was quite simple: Don't try to be like iPod or to beat iPod. Instead, create a new word that will help Microsoft to create a distinct personality," revealed David Placek, founder and CEO of Lexicon.

Three Lexicon teams, two people each were put to work on designing a brand identity for Microsoft's portable player. Two of the teams worked under the presumption that they were creating names for a Sony player and an MTV broadband experience while only one knew that Microsoft was behind the project.

"Additionally, the Lexicon Research Network of 60 Ph.D. linguists in 39 countries was tapped to provide insights into the latest brands in music and video entertainment and to give us suggestions as to words, word parts, sounds and metaphors that might be applied to a next generation entertainment system," Placek added.