How to Search for an LLC Name

Searching for an LLC Name should be a fun experience, and enjoyable, because as a new business owner you are embarking on an exciting journey. The life of a business owner isn't for everyone, and it is often riddled with exciting events, stressful times, and never a dull moment if you're doing things right. BUT, the process of finding a name can often be challenging and sometimes frustrating for a number of reasons. Let's go over those reasons below.

Is Naming an LLC Hard?

The simple answer to this question, is maybe. In a matter of seconds any one of us can come up with the craziest of names for a business, and do it quickly. And when I say a crazy name, I am meaning a unique name that is something that is so unique that nobody else would choose such a unique name. But will this be the PERFECT NAME FOR YOUR LLC? No, probably not. The hard part that we all usually face, is the part where we are looking for a perfect name that is common, and most likely already registered by another business.

The truth is, that finding a perfect name for a business will be challenging for many people, because there are a lot of factors that go into finding that great name.

Names that are already registered

Many good names have already been reserved or registered by other business owners. This is often the case because let's face it, we all want a very good sounding, and meaningful name. For example, if we are opening an ice cream store, we probably are going to want the name ice cream in the name. So here are some common names:

1. Tasty Ice Cream (not available)
2. Ice Cream Floats ( possibly available at time of this article )
3. Flavors Ice Cream (not available)

Here are three names that i thought of quickly. Next, I went to the State of NY business name search website and found the following:

1. TASTY ICE CREAM SHOP, INC.
2. FLAVORS ICE CREAM INC.

From this quick search, we can start to see that 1 out of three names that we searched for were not available. This isn't a good ratio, but not an impossible ratio to look for. The more common the business name that you are looking for, the more difficult you will find it to get a good name for your business.

Existing businesses are Using the Name you Want

As you can see from the quick search example that we showed above, many existing businesses will be using the names that you want to register. In some states, even when a name has gone expired the state will not allow you to register the expired name. The reason is that the naming statutes prevent the registration for a time period after a business has stopped using a certain name. So, when you find an existing Businesses are already using these names, you have limited chance to use this name.

Requesting Permission - In some states, when the name is ambiguously close to another name, the state will prevent you from using this name because it can be confusing to customers. The deceptive or confusing names can be registered however, if you follow the following steps. In some states, you are able to request permission to use a name that is very similar to another company. For an example, let's refer to our example above regarding Tasty Ice Cream Shop, INC.

Let's say we want the name "Tasty Ice Cream Shop, INC

As we can all see, the two names are really similar, and so a potential creditor or customer just won't be able to distinguish if the two companies are the same or different owners. However, in this case the filing company can make a request to the existing business and request approval to use the similar name. Here is a document from the State of South Dakota, which is for Requesting Use of Similar Business Name.

LLC Names & Corporation Names

Most states treat LLC names and Corporation names differently. So this means that you can have two of the exact same names, for different entity types:

1. Tasty Ice Cream, INC.
2. Tasty Ice Cream, LLC

This is totally allowable in certain states, so please sure to check out our information, and the information at your state to determine how your state approves and rejects business names.

All 50 States

The same LLC names can be reserved in all 50 states, yes this is true. LLCs (and corporations ) are registered at the state level. So, this means that in every state you can have the exact same name registered. So, back to our trusty example: Tasty Ice Cream, Inc. can be registered in all 50 states. In our little example, I did a quick search for the same corporation name in California, Nevada, and Florida and none of these states had the same name registered. However, you should know that many names will be registered in other states.

Intellectual Property

There are intellectual property issues that can come into play when deciding on a good name. You may find a perfect name that may be available in your state, only later to find out that that same name has been reserved in another state and this other company has a trademark on the name.

Trademark, copyright, and patent issues are serious ones for business owners and they are issues that should never be taken lightly. The one thing that a competing business owner is likely to do, is protect their brand. Especially if they have gone through the extra time to register a trademark, they will likely take action if you are infringing on their intellectual property.

To GoDaddy or To Not GoDaddy, that is the question!

While this is a slight play on words, it essentially is referring to the issue of filing a domain name at the time of your llc registration that aligns with your LLC name. If you are looking to align the name of your LLC, with that of a domain name, you are complicating the matter of registering your LLC name. The reason for this, is that domain names are really hard to find, without adding the complexity of getting that perfect business name and perfect LLC name at the same time. If you are looking to get both of these at the same time, with the perfect business name, you may quickly find the registration process paralyzed with the hunt for perfection. You may want to ease up on your standards or requirements and for the sake of getting things moving and registered, consider starting the process with the concept of trying your best within a reason time period. So, spend a really good effort to find the names and domain you are looking for, but remain reasonable and understand that time has a priority in this process as well.