Titles are a means to categorise resource by HR.

Titles merely offer a bracket of salary that a resource can have, once they reach the peak they either have to go up a rank or leave to get more pay.

At a bank, the salespeople and analysts are called Vice Presidents. It's just a name.

Being Lead Developer in a one person team definitely sounds reasonable. You are still the lead dev on the project and have to take on all the responsiblities (even more so than if the team was bigger?).

> You are still the lead dev on the project and have to take on all the responsiblities

Except the responsibility of leading other people, on a resume this title would imply you gained that experience while in fact you didn't.

"lead" doesn't mean that at all in this context it's technical leadership

To me even technical leadership still implies there are people that are less technically advanced that follow or benefit from the leadership. In general any leader implies followers, otherwise, what are you leading?

Note that I didn't say manage other people. I'm talking about helping get the better of the team, showing a junior member how things can be done better, etc. Like a team captain, not a coach.

I've never interpreted it as meaning leading people but rather leading the development of a project (or some portion of it). In fact, at IBM, I saw teams have multiple lead devs.