Similar systems were used (and perhaps still are, though the field's momentum is elsewhere) to map out the brain's semantic structures back in the day.  It works both semantically and phonologically, and presumably via other associational mechanisms as well.  

I'd never heard of soundex, I'm totally stealing that.

elvismercury

bitcoin

Technological determinism and splitting the atom of cause and effect

Forced to guess, I'd say I found it via some kind of composite index where the [column order](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_index#Column_order) is `(player names, game shape)`. Whatever index I have where game shape is first indexed is probably more sparse than I'd like.

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On the topic of brain indices ... The other day when I was trying to recall Drew Barrymore's name, I first audibly called her Hallie Barry then Happy Gilmore before arriving at Drew Barrymore. Brains must have some kind of [soundex system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soundex).