The name "Zeit" was very confusing for Germans. "Zeit" is the regular word for time and there's also a newspaper called "Die ZEIT".
It's a big market for most internationally operating companies, seems a smart move to take that into account early.
> Apple is also a regular word... its's the name of a fruit in English
And it caused them pretty big problems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
I'm sure they've thoroughly vetted "Vercel" against potential trademark conflicts.