How to check if a business name is taken
Last reviewed November 13, 2026
A business name can be blocked in four different places: your state's company register, the state or county list of trade names, the federal trademark register, and the web. Checking only the first is the most common mistake.
1. Search the state’s business register
Every state keeps a public database of the companies registered there. Search it for the main words of your name without the ending, so “Cedar Hollow Bakery” and not “Cedar Hollow Bakery LLC”. If the search offers “contains” as well as “starts with”, use “contains”: it catches names that begin with “The” or another word.
Look at inactive records too. In many states a dissolved company’s name stays protected for a period, so an inactive match is not automatically free.
You can run a preliminary check for any state here, then confirm it on the state’s own search.
2. Compare close matches the way the state does
States don’t just reject identical names. They ignore differences they consider trivial, which is the distinguishable name test. Treat a name as taken if the only differences are:
- the ending, such as LLC, Inc. or Corp.
- punctuation, spacing or capital letters
- “the”, “a”, or “and” versus “&”
- in many states, singular versus plural
If your name survives only because of one of these, change a real word.
3. Check trade names
A business can operate under a name that isn’t its legal name, known as a DBA. Some states list these in the main business search. Others keep a separate state list, and some record them county by county. If your state is one of the last two, search that list as well.
4. Search federal trademarks
This is the step with the most expensive consequences. A state will happily register a company name that infringes someone’s trademark, because states don’t check. Search the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s free trademark search for your name and close spellings, and look at marks used for goods or services like yours. A conflict here can force a rename after you’ve printed, built and advertised.
5. Check the web
Search the name in quotes, look for the .com and the handles on the platforms you plan to use. A name that is legally available but buried under an established business with the same name will be hard to find and easy to confuse.
Then lock it in
A clear search doesn’t hold the name. Someone else can file it tomorrow. You secure it by forming the company or, if you aren’t ready, by paying the state for a name reservation.
Checking more than one state? Names are approved state by state. If you'll register in a second state, run the same steps there. A company whose name is taken in the second state registers under an alternate name for that state.
Ready to check a name? Free preliminary check for all 50 states and D.C.
Check a business name