US West Inc. customers soon will let their fingers do the walking through a phone directory called Dex.

The telecommunications giant announced Tuesday that the familiar White and Yellow Pages telephone directories and a relatively new Internet directory will be renamed Dex to reflect a “more spirited personality.”

“We wanted something we could create a personality around,” said John Elkins, president of the consulting firm that chose Dex. “That came across as meaning both directory expert and a person who can help you find things.”

Dex, like dexterity and index, was derived from the Latin root, dexter, which helped clinch the choice for US West, officials said.