A rocket is fired during a drill of drone planes assaulting targets and a firing drill of self-propelled flak rocket destroying "enemy" cruise missiles coming in attack in low altitude, conducted by the air force and air defence artillery units
IN PHOTO: A rocket is fired during a drill of drone planes assaulting targets and a firing drill of self-propelled flak rocket destroying "enemy" cruise missiles coming in attack in low altitude, conducted by the air force and air defence artillery units of the Korean People's Army in an undisclosed location in this picture released by the North's official KCNA news agency in Pyongyang March 20, 2013 Reuters/Stringer

Drones--the unmanned aerial vehicles are very popular. But the makers of that device are very unhappy or uneasy with the name. Many of them feel the nomenclature "drone" makes the product feel like a dull, hostile and drowsy stuff. Not a surprise that the drone conference in Washington, D.C., in 2013 had a message to journalists: "The Wi-Fi password will be DONTSAYDRONES at the press room".

New Name Sought

The craving for a new name for drone is getting stronger. For many producers, drone suggests the device to be dumb, technically inaccurate despite its humongous militaristic reputation. Some unmanned-aircraft advocates even scold reporters and Congressmen for using that term, reported Fortune.

But the bigger problem is the failure to forge a consensus on what the device should be ideally called. From names like crone for commercial drone, to alphabet soup such as UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle), RPA (remotely piloted aircraft), and UAS (unmanned aircraft system) the options are a plenty. There are also a few pitching for digestible "unmanned aircraft," or just "robot," while European Union officials bat for the bulkier name RPAS standing for remotely piloted aircraft systems.

Says Zack Porter, a venture-capitalist considering investments in commercial drones, "I feel another name is required but not sure what that new name should be", reported Wall Street Journal.

Norms in Making

The name change is catching the imagination of all at a time the Federal Aviation Administration is drafting new rules for the commercial use of drones. In the U.S., groups like farmers, filmmakers and others have been flying drones in growing numbers, many times, without permission. Internally, the FAA and Congress call it UAS.

According to Michael Toscano, chief executive for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, "If the FAA wants to call it bullfrog, I'll also call bullfrog". It was he who urged reporters last year not to call the device "drone".

He likes UAS because it encompasses the entire system. It was the U.S. military that originally nicknamed the device as "drone". This was stated by Ben Zimmer, a lexicographer. In 1935, the U.S. Navy started using unmanned aircraft as aerial targets for shooting practice.

Hot In Search Engines

But drone is popular among the Internet users. The U.S. residents generally searched more for UAV than drone in the period from 2004 to 2009. But the new data from Google Trends says from 2010 onwards, Google searches for "drone" bypassed other alternatives and the term still remains the top choice even today.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported that despite drones being native to the U.S., many drone entrepreneurs are finding it hard to get off the ground, compared to the rivals in Europe, Australia and China, who are doing good business.