Jun 9 • 3 min read

Why ‘Xapien’?

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Some background on our name.

Here at Xapien, we think names are pretty important.

A name is the key you put into our platform that unlocks everything you, or your colleagues need to know about it.

At the same time, we know names are not unique identifiers. You can’t always be certain that a name in an article or a corporate record refers to the same person you are looking for. Context always matters, and we wanted to give you a bit of context on our recent name change, as we gear up for an exciting period of growth.

Digital Insight was a good, descriptive name for what we do: we use cutting-edge tech to provide insight into companies and people in a digital age.

However, it was not particularly distinctive, exciting, or ownable. We could have been an ad agency or website monitoring tool. It also gave us trademarking and marketing problems.

So, we decided we needed a change.

We knew we wanted something unique, evocative and practical. But as we thought more about what our name should be, we realised this was an opportunity to ask ourselves who exactly we are as a business, and who we want to be…

Here’s what we knew

  1. Our technology has the precise cognitive ability of a human, empowered by the unlimited scale, processing power and speed of technology.
  2. It has the power to find, read and understand the enormous wealth of structured and unstructured information held online across media, corporate websites, wikipedia, and more.
  3. It gives you the power of a team of well-trained researchers at your fingertips, who can produce results in minutes.

Our new name, Xapien (pronounced ‘zay-pee-an’), sums that up.

What’s in a name?

Xapien is derived from ‘sapient’: the quality of possessing knowledge, intelligence and wisdom.

From ‘sapient’ you get ‘sapien’, derived from the Latin word for wise or astute. Homo sapien literally means ‘wise man’.

The significance of X

‘X’ has many semantic connotations:

X = bringing together

X = multiplied, to the power of…

X = 10

X = power

X = speed

X = innovation

X = cutting edge 

X = accuracy (‘X-marks the spot’)

‘X’ also reflects the five essential characteristics of our technology:

  • Quick: Rapid results
  • Comprehensive: Insights from the entire indexed internet
  • Accurate: Disambiguation, clarity
  • Simple: To use and to understand
  • Versatile: Different uses for different people

Our technology, hard-wired into the internet and with the world’s knowledge at its disposal, automates the human process of background research at 1000s of times the scale, and speed of a human.

The practicalities

Phonetics aside, the name also makes sense for our business. It is unique, great for SEO and the trademark was available in the UK and the US.

Visit our Insights page to learn more.

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Search engines are great but they are only the starting point. Finding, reading and condensing the full picture is slow, hard, and painstaking work. Xapien can help.