The name of the game could be success for a new Internet company being run from a cellar in east Oxford.

Scientist Martin Lee, 30, and IT consultant Dave Johnson, 44, have set up the Naming Company together after meeting while working at Oxford's multimillion pound Internet company Mondus, based at the Oxford Innovation Centre in Mill Street, Osney.

Mr Lee, a former Oxford virology researcher, has developed software that allows the user to search vast amounts of data for a particular name.

He said: "I had friends doing English literature research who were paying an absolute fortune for late medieval texts.

"They are all centuries out of copyright, so as an Internet enthusiast I thought they should be able to find them free. Over the years I built up a bit of expertise and it struck me that there were other uses.

"We are aiming our product at anyone who has large amounts of information which could be used more efficiently.

"For instance, you could browse through the Oxford Mail articles and find out the most frequently mentioned person in Oxfordshire, as well as discovering their inter-relationships by finding other names they are associated with."

Customers will include publishers of trade journals, news agencies and broadcasting organisations as well as PR and media monitoring companies.

Mr Lee said: "We want to stay in the Oxford area because there is a good pool of freelance editors and skilled programmers."

The company is raising £300,000 with the help of Oxfordshire Investment Opportunity Network and Internet network First Tuesday.

Mr Lee said they aimed to take on about 12 people over the next year and move to proper offices the company is currently based in the cellar of his home in east Oxford.