diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 189ca8c..2b65ff2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -9,6 +9,36 @@ The project is currently developing **TrustLab**, a browser-neutral JavaScript
 testbed for trust plugins, immutable TLS facts, append-only decision journals,
 and scoped Boolean trust verdicts.
 
+## Names and identity
+
+The project and its principal components are named as follows:
+
+- **Browsec** is the browser project: an independently governed Firefox
+  downstream built around plural, user-controlled trust.
+- **Velvet Hammer** is Browsec's trust engine. It combines a calm,
+  comprehensible interface with strict and uncompromising security semantics.
+- **TrustLab** is the browser-neutral research tool and testbed in which the
+  engine, plugins, diagnostics, and policy rules are developed against both
+  synthetic and live TLS evidence.
+- **Browsec Trust API** is the rigid interface through which trust plugins
+  observe evidence, advise the decision process, or—when explicitly granted
+  authority—return scoped Boolean verdicts.
+
+The preferred engine presentation is:
+
+> **Velvet Hammer** — *A plural trust engine for Browsec*
+
+Its emblem should be restrained rather than cartoonish: a polished spherical
+hammer head and short handle, possibly meeting or resting above a certificate
+chain link. The image represents smooth interaction around an inflexible
+security boundary—not aggression.
+
+The name also gives us a small working vocabulary: a *Velvet verdict*, a
+*Hammer rule*, and *TrustLab powered by Velvet Hammer*. One sentence captures
+the engine's governing temperament:
+
+> The hammer permits no silent widening of scope.
+
 ## Project documents
 
 - [Coarse-grained concept](CONCEPT.md)
@@ -20,4 +50,3 @@ and scoped Boolean trust verdicts.
 
 - **sergeych** — project creator, security architecture, and implementation
 - **Codex (OpenAI)** — AI design and implementation collaborator
-