Create a named vector with names stored in a variable

Often I want create a named vector and the names are stored in a variable. I must use a 2 steps function:

names <- paste0("V", 1:100)
A <- 1:100
names(A) <- names

I search a way to do the same in a single step. Here is the solution:

A <- structure(1:100, .Dim = 100L, 
                   .Dimnames = list(names))

But which one is the faster?

names <- paste0("V", 1:100)
library(microbenchmark)
microbenchmark({
    A <- 1:100
    names(A) <- names}, 
    {A <- structure(1:100, .Dim = 100L, 
                   .Dimnames = list(names))}, 
    times = 1000L)
Unit: microseconds
                                                                expr  min    lq     mean
                            {     A <- 1:100     names(A) <- names } 1.02 1.068 1.222658
 {     A <- structure(1:100, .Dim = 100L, .Dimnames = list(names)) } 5.78 6.295 6.486045
 median     uq    max neval cld
 1.2475 1.3310  4.658  1000  a 
 6.4090 6.5575 33.790  1000   b

In conclusion, the 2-steps function is 6 times faster than the 1-step function. It was not intuitive !