Choosing a Business Name FAQ

No doubt you'll spend hours brainstorming for a business name that represents your products or services—a name that's both marketable and infused with personality. To help the creative process along, you might search the internet, browse the dictionary, read trade magazines, and bounce ideas off of friends and colleagues. But as you hunt for the perfect name, keep three main questions in mind:

• Will your business name receive trademark protection?
• Is your proposed business name available?
• If your business will have a website, is a similar domain name available?

Plus, if you're starting a corporation, limited liability company (LLC), or limited partnership, you must comply with a few state rules for naming your business.

You'll have to conduct a name and trademark search to make sure no one else is using the name you want to use (or a very similar name) to market similar products or services. You should also check with your county clerk's office to see whether your proposed name is already on the list of fictitious or assumed business names in your county. If you find that your chosen name (or a very similar one) is registered as a trademark, or is listed on a fictitious or assumed name register, you shouldn't use it.

If you're organizing your business as a corporation, LLC, or limited partnership, you must also make sure your business name isn't the same as that of an existing corporation, LLC, or limited partnership in your state. If a name that's identical or very similar to your proposed business name turns up in your state's database, you'll have to choose another.

Read Make Sure Your Proposed Business Name Is Available for instructions on how to do a thorough name and trademark search.

A trademark (sometimes called simply a "mark") is any word, phrase, design, or symbol used to market a product or service. Technically, a mark used to market a service, rather than a product, is called a "service mark." Though the term "trademark" is commonly used for both types of marks because they refer to the same group of legal protections.

Owners of trademarks have rights under both federal and state law that give them the power in many cases to prevent others from using the same or confusingly similar trademarks.

To make sure your proposed business name won't step on someone else's rights to an existing trademark, you'll have to do a trademark search. (Read Make Sure Your Proposed Business Name Is Available to learn how to do a trademark search.)

Also, when picking a business name, you should choose a name that'll be likely to receive trademark protection and then take steps to protect your business name as a trademark. To be protected as a trademark, the mark needs to:

• be distinctive, and
• identify the source of goods or services.

In general, distinctive marks aren't generic or descriptive of the goods or services the mark represents. For example, you probably couldn't trademark "Produce Stand" for a stand selling fruits and vegetables because "Produce Stand" simply describes the goods. Instead, distinctive marks fall under three categories:

• suggestive (the trademark implies the goods or services but doesn't directly describe them, such as "NETFLIX" for a movie streaming service)
• arbitrary (the trademark has nothing to do with the associated goods or services, think "Apple" for computer products), or
• fanciful (the trademark is a made up word(s) like "Kodak")

For more information on protecting your business name as a trademark, see our FAQ on filing a federal trademark application.

The legal name of a business is the official name of the person or entity that owns a business. If you're the only owner of your business (a sole proprietor), then its legal name is simply your full name.

If your business is a general partnership, and you have a written partnership agreement that gives a name to the partnership, then that name is the legal name of the business. Otherwise, the legal name of a general partnership consists of the last names of the owners.

For limited partnerships, LLCs, corporations, and other registered businesses, the legal name of the business is the name registered with the state filing office.

Your business's legal name will be required on all government forms and applications and is particularly important to use on your application for a federal employer identification number.

If you plan to use a name that's different from your business's legal name, you'll need to register the name you want to use with a government agency. For more information, see, What Is a DBA?

The term "fictitious business name" (or "assumed business name," "trade name," or "DBA" for "doing business as") is used when a business uses a name that's different from its legal name. For instance, if John O'Toole names his sole proprietorship Turtle's Classic Cars, the name "Turtle's Classic Cars" is a fictitious business name because it does not contain John's last name, "O'Toole."

If your business uses a fictitious business name, you'll need to register it with a government agency -- in most states, your local county clerk's office.

For more information, read more about name variations as fictitious business names, and Registering Your Business Name.

There's no one-size-fits-all formula for picking a great business name. The best name depends on a host of considerations -- some as obvious as the kind of business you do, others as unique as your own tastes and style. There are, however, a few guidelines that will steer you in the right direction. A good business name should:

• be distinctive
• be memorable
• be easily spelled and pronounced
• suggest the products or services you offer, and
• distinguish you from your competitors.