A good drone company name is to be valued.

I was doing research for one of my exemption petition clients and came across some interesting findings I want to share with everyone.

It seems to me that there are only about 15 words and everyone basically mixes up those 15 words (think Scrabble), picks a few of them, and puts them together to create a company name.

One business I know of in the pool leak industry had a big problem. Their original company name was Leak Solutions. They had a great word of mouth reputation but people were referring potential customers to the incorrect company or the potential customers had a hard time remembering the exact accurate name and finding the company. There were many different competitors in the industry with very similar names who were taking their business. The company rebranded their name to Red Rhino.

The big problem with choosing a name with words everyone else is using is your customers are going to get the names confused and referral sources could potentially send referrals to the wrong company or competitor!

Seriously, almost all the drone companies have one of these words in them:

• solutions
• aerial
• view
• unmanned
• drone
• UAS
• UAV
• technology
• vision
• aero
• services
• hawk
• fly
• eagle
• sky
• bird
• eye
• media
• cine
• picture
• cam
• film
• precision, etc.

Here is a perfect example of why you want to do research before picking a name.

I found exemption petitions for these drone companies:

• Skyview Aerial Solutions, LLC
• Sky-View Aerial Services LLC
• Skyview Films, LLC
• SkyView Innovation Technology
• Richard Boyle d/b/a Sky Eye View
• SkyView Photoworks
• GPS Development, LLC dba SkyViewHD
• Skyview Media Productions, LLC

This is also an important lesson on why you need to do research before starting a company. Proverbs 19:2 says, “Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.”

A simple way of picking a name is (your name) + (services).  I did that with my company Rupprecht Law, P.A.  If you don’t want to go that route (maybe because your name is common like Smith), I would suggest picking a name that:

• Involves an animal
• Has a color in it
• Is not trademarked
• The domain name is available
• There are no other names on Google that come up with a similar thing or that are very powerful.  For example, the drone company Skyward has to compete with Skyward which is a K-12 administrative software package.
• Make sure there is NOT any bad reputation with the name from another industry (like Enron).
• Check to see if you can register the social media handles with the name on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Linkedin.
• Is it forcing you to stick to one industry? For example, if it is Drone Bros and you decide to go into doing video productions, your clients might be confused by the name. Keep in mind that you have the ability to maybe get a doing business as DBA for whatever you go into. You want it broad enough for the future but accurately describes you now.

I would NOT pick a name that is based upon a location:

• You might move.
• Others will have the same idea. I saw one guy on Facebook talking about a competitor naming his business almost the same as his.  ( example: “Springfield Drones”).

Lastly, when picking your name, consider also the website domain you will be registering. That is very important for search engine optimization. For example, my website tells Google Rupprecht and Law but doesn’t have anything for drones. In retroflect, it might have been better to be dronelaw.com or droneattorney.com.  There is also the issue of making your scope too narrow – or too broad.

I hope this helps!

Jonathan Rupprecht

Aviation Attorney. FAA Certificated Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor (CFI/CFII). Contributor at Forbes.com for Aerospace and Defense.