diff --git a/src/nvim/highlight_group.c b/src/nvim/highlight_group.c
index 93d6e65040..ac7f6c4317 100644
--- a/src/nvim/highlight_group.c
+++ b/src/nvim/highlight_group.c
@@ -1751,6 +1751,8 @@ static int syn_add_group(const char *name, size_t len)
   if (highlight_ga.ga_data == NULL) {
     highlight_ga.ga_itemsize = sizeof(HlGroup);
     ga_set_growsize(&highlight_ga, 10);
+    // 265 builtin groups, will always be used, plus some space
+    ga_grow(&highlight_ga, 300);
   }
 
   if (highlight_ga.ga_len >= MAX_HL_ID) {
@@ -2765,10 +2767,19 @@ RgbValue name_to_color(const char *name, int *idx)
     return normal_fg;
   }
 
-  for (int i = 0; color_name_table[i].name != NULL; i++) {
-    if (!STRICMP(name, color_name_table[i].name)) {
-      *idx = i;
-      return color_name_table[i].color;
+  int lo = 0;
+  int hi = ARRAY_SIZE(color_name_table) - 1;  // don't count NULL element
+  while (lo < hi) {
+    int m = (lo + hi) / 2;
+    int cmp = STRICMP(name, color_name_table[m].name);
+    if (cmp < 0) {
+      hi = m;
+    } else if (cmp > 0) {
+      lo = m + 1;
+    } else {  // found match
+      *idx = m;
+      return color_name_table[m].color;
+      break;
     }
   }
 
diff --git a/src/nvim/main.c b/src/nvim/main.c
index 71c1ddfae1..2ddbbfbbfb 100644
--- a/src/nvim/main.c
+++ b/src/nvim/main.c
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ void event_init(void)
   channel_init();
   terminal_init();
   ui_init();
+  TIME_MSG("event init");
 }
 
 /// @returns false if main_loop could not be closed gracefully
@@ -172,6 +173,8 @@ void early_init(mparm_T *paramp)
            (int)ovi.dwMajorVersion, (int)ovi.dwMinorVersion);
 #endif
 
+  TIME_MSG("early init");
+
 #if defined(HAVE_LOCALE_H)
   // Setup to use the current locale (for ctype() and many other things).
   // NOTE: Translated messages with encodings other than latin1 will not
@@ -184,8 +187,7 @@ void early_init(mparm_T *paramp)
   if (!win_alloc_first()) {
     os_exit(0);
   }
-
-  init_yank();                  // init yank buffers
+  TIME_MSG("init first window");
 
   alist_init(&global_alist);    // Init the argument list to empty.
   global_alist.id = 0;
diff --git a/src/nvim/ops.c b/src/nvim/ops.c
index 510aa1c8ac..20bbc5b440 100644
--- a/src/nvim/ops.c
+++ b/src/nvim/ops.c
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
 #include "nvim/vim.h"
 #include "nvim/window.h"
 
-static yankreg_T y_regs[NUM_REGISTERS];
+static yankreg_T y_regs[NUM_REGISTERS] = { 0 };
 
 static yankreg_T *y_previous = NULL;  // ptr to last written yankreg
 
@@ -2571,12 +2571,6 @@ int op_change(oparg_T *oap)
   return retval;
 }
 
-/// set all the yank registers to empty (called from main())
-void init_yank(void)
-{
-  memset(&(y_regs[0]), 0, sizeof(y_regs));
-}
-
 #if defined(EXITFREE)
 void clear_registers(void)
 {