Over the years I have grown fascinated with the names people select for their surveying companies. Many are simply the surname of the LS who owns and operates the firm. Some are directly tied to the city or county where they are based. Some have a connection to the surveying profession's terminology.
What are some of the more interesting firm names you have encountered?
While cruising around Belleville, Illinois on Monday afternoon I had the pleasure of witnessing three employees of Big Muddy Surveying taking shots on the centerline of a city street. Since we were only about 15 miles from the Mississippi River at the time, I thought that name to be quite appropriate. However, in my head I was picturing surveyors up to their knees in muck and mire every day. I could also picture some wealthy lady in her mansion with the white shag carpet that has never been touched by a shoe reacting to the thought of having a crew from Big Muddy traipsing about her manicured and landscaped lawn. I'll admit that I like the name Big Muddy Surveying, but what do I know, I'm just a surveyor.
Not a surveying company, but a construction company south of the Baltimore area. Not positive they are still in business, but have seen the trucks in the past. First heard of them from a former boss.
"Busy Ditch" and yes, it was woman owned.
Construction company digging utility ditches.
My brother has a construction company. His company name is Giles Construction. His motto though is: Nail it, screw it, glue it, we can do it.
There is a survey company near here that is called Paramount Surveying. Don't know how they decided on that name.
Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.....
I've always been partial to Sofa King Surveying...:stakeout:
You know; our prices aren't only low; they are SOFA KING low!:snarky::snarky:
I always thought a cool name would be Section 37 Land Surveying.
jsavage977, post: 333875, member: 9464 wrote: Section 37 Land Surveying
I might expect that there are very few townships you would get calls for.:-P
I named my business Lake State Land Surveying. I'm in the UP of Michigan. My friends had joking suggested naming the business Long Rods LS, More Land LS or 2 Chainz LS.
Lewis and Clark Surveying
Landcheck
When I first started a survey company, before I was a Licensed Surveyor, my partner was, I came up with the name,
The Survey Company
it was a big success. There was a big housing boom going on. We were knocking down some good money. One day I was dropping off some surveys at a clients office early one morning and the big guy was yelling at the secretary, "CALL THE SURVEY COMPANY!". The secretary had the phone book out looking, and asked which one? He yelled even louder, " CALL THE SURVEY COMPANY!, CALL THE SURVEY COMPANY!, CALL THE SURVEY COMPANY!". He turned around and saw me and said, never mind, the survey company is here now. My partner quit he full time job, turned against me. We split, and The Survey Company died.
There are actually sections above 36, as I found to my own surprise.
My memory is foggy now, but I believe they were blm lands that divisions were unlikely, so on the ground surveys were never performed. At any rate, I found section PB42 somewhere in the Wenachee Nataional forest.
Edit: looked it up again, and the description is as follows:
That PB stands for 'Protracted Block', which is an unsurveyed area (of uncertain acreage) of which parts of, but not the entire, boundary has been surveyed. These Û÷PBsÛª will be found most often in areas with complete or partial section surveys, such as in mining districts, areas with private inholdings or along Federal land boundaries.
A protracted block is identified by its unique numbering system. The lowest protracted block number will be PB37 and it will be sequentially numbered, identifying each parcel that abuts a previously surveyed area.
That's certainly true for portions of Ranchos within a township.
If I had a surveying company in Belleville, Illinois it sure would be called: Uncle Tupelo's Surveying
I think there is a modern issue with calling a company 'xxx Survey'. When people search online, you are going to always be confused with the 'Survey Monkey' polling companies. Around election time, you might be bothered by candidates asking for push polling.
I am not sure, but just adding the word 'Land' to the name, might be enough to throw off the search dogs.
We have customers all over the country and it causes us great concern to have four different outfits with the exact same name. It increases the chance that we will send the right thing to the wrong guy so I have taken to adding the city, after the company name for these companies in all CAPS right after the name. It is a flag that you need to be careful.
I know that this happens with supply companies, there is no end to confusion for some of the shop names across state boundaries.
I would also have a concern that a similarly named company in an adjoining state might sully my 'good' name (assuming I had one) with their shoddy work.
Bill93, post: 333878, member: 87 wrote: I might expect that there are very few townships you would get calls for.:-P
I seem to recall there being a section 37 somewhere in SE Oregon. I have never seen it, but I believe that quite a few years back someone was doing a seminar on it. It has always intrigued me but I only heard about it that one time. Makes me think it may have been a dream...
Section 37 Land Surveying
Of course, you'd be competing with the Section 45 Land Surveying company here.
I look around Portland and see that a large percentage of survey and engineering companies bear the names of their founders and/or principal partners. Or acronyms derived therefrom. As a matter of fact, it seems to me to be even more true for the larger firms.
David Evans & Associates
W&H Pacific (once known as Wilsey & Ham)
Otak (An acronym derived from the 3 founders initials)
Mackay & Sposito
Harper Houf Petersen Reghellis (aka HHPR and my current employer)
to name a few
Same was true in Oklahoma.
Back in the 70s the head chief had a magnetic sign made for his personal truck "HALF FAST SURVEYING"
His claim was that he did not do anything fast anymore........he also had never ever filed income tax. When they audited him for the maximum7 yrs prior he got enough back to buy a new truck to put his sign on....
The boss just shook his head and settled with the fact that he would never display it at work.
"A name, a name, what's in a name....?" (apologies to Bill Shakespeare)
Around here we pretty much stick with your basic "Smith's Surveying Co." Really, really, unimaginative. But I fall in there too. In the last ten or fifteen years the new guys have stepped it up a notch...Jake and his "Bearing Tree" or what's-his-name's "Atlas Surveying". I often toyed with the idea of "Big Johnson" Surveying...
Funny though, when I started in this business, there were NO surveying companies, only engineering firms. The very, very few "solo" guys were mostly retired from larger firms and worked out of their house. Gene Hilderbrand comes to mind...Eventually surveying firms came into their own independently from the consulting engineers, thank God. I would bet there are more surveying companies now than consulting firms offering surveying, and I applaud that. But that is just the corner of the business I occupy.
Anyway, maybe there is a need for catchy names (I do like Big Muddy). In my mind a catchy name could only draw "one time" clients that only want to whine about fees. I avoid them like six-month old room-temp sauerkraut. The only reason my firm's name is not MY name is because I had forethought enough with my desire to eventually sell out and retire. I am also still on the CA for Mark Deal & Associates, but I tried like crazy to get his surviving partner to slowly change the name. He has successfully resisted for the last 15 years. From time to time they still get calls wanting to talk to 'Mark' :pinch:...a sure sign they are a sales call!
John, post: 333862, member: 791 wrote: Not a surveying company, but a construction company south of the Baltimore area. Not positive they are still in business, but have seen the trucks in the past. First heard of them from a former boss.
"Busy Ditch" and yes, it was woman owned.
Construction company digging utility ditches.
In the early 90's a larger construction company I did work for was tired of loosing work to woman owned companies so they formed their own woman owned company
And the name was>>>>>>>>>>BEAVER CONSTRUCTION 🙂 Happy Friday, Jp
There was a "Close Enough Engineering" in Seattle, I like the idea of a "Good n' Uff" Surveying.