Choosing a name for your LLC comes down to your own personal preferences. You can choose any name that you want as long as someone else does not use that name or something similar to that name.
But, how can you know that you can use the name you want?
Let’s dive into that.
Two Important Notes on LLC Names
Here are two things you should know before choosing a name for your LLC:
- Your LLC can have one name, but you can do business under another name (known as DBA – Doing Business As). That requires some paperwork and is not necessary for most businesses. Most businesses do business with the names they are registered with.
- The name of your LLC and the name of your website (the domain) can be different. For example, you can call your LLC under your name (John Smith LLC, if that’s your name), but your actual domains and brands can have different names. Having said that, John Smith LLC can operate with the brand PowerPets and the website powerpets.io.
How to Check Out If Your Desired Name is Free?
You can check out if your desired name is free on the business search tool of the Wyoming Secretary of State on this link.
The name lookup is included in your Neubase package, but here’s what you could do to avoid any delays.
First, below the Filing Name field, change the Starts With to Contains. That way the lookup tool will give you all the names that are very similar to your desired name.
Then in the field Filing Name, write your LLC name, and click Search.
The tool will show you some results.
A quick tip: Let’s say that you want to call your LLC Marketing Lions Hub. If you search for Marketing Lions Hub, you’ll likely get no results.
But, if you search for Marketing Lions, you may get Marketing Lions LLC and Marketing Lions House LLC.
It is better to do multiple searches.
If you get “No Results Found”, it is very likely that your desired name is free for use.
If you get results of names similar to yours, you need to ensure that your name is distinguishable from the others.
If you searched for Marketing Lions, and you got that it has been registered, you cannot use MarketingLions, just because there is no space between the two words. You cannot use Marketing Lion just because it is singular, or A Marketing Lion, just because it is singular and has an A in the beginning. They are still confusing.
But, you can use Marketing Lions Hub, because it is different. Or The Marketing Lions Kingdom. Just be creative.
Also, some names may need approval by government bodies. These requirements apply to LLC names that use words such as bank or university. They require approval from the relevant education and financial agencies respectively.
Finally, you must not use words such as corp, or inc, in the LLC name. It is an LLC, not a corporation, so you must not confuse people on your company structure.
