How to name a business comes down to six steps: brainstorm widely, cut to a shortlist, check the name with your state, search federal trademarks, confirm the domain and social handles, and only then register everything. Most guides put the domain near the end. We put it before you commit, because finding out the .com belongs to someone else after you have filed your LLC and printed signs is the most expensive way to learn it. This guide is written for US businesses and links to the official USPTO and SBA pages for each legal check.

Step 1: Brainstorm business names in volume

The first step in naming a business is producing far more names than you need, because most will fail a later check. Our 2010 guest post on how to create your small business brand or business name suggested listing no fewer than 100 candidates, using a thesaurus, a rhyming dictionary and a group of people who are not all "creative types." That advice holds up. A few methods that reliably produce usable names:

• Start from the result, not the service. What does the customer feel or get when you are done? A cleaning company sells a calm Saturday, not mops.
• Combine two real words. Two short, familiar words are easier to spell and remember than an invented one.
• Bend a word. Puns, slang and altered spellings are less likely to be taken, a tactic covered in our post on dreaming up a great domain name that is still available.

How to name a business with multiple services

If you offer several services, name the business for the customer or the outcome rather than any single service. "Rivera Plumbing and Drywall" breaks the day you add roofing. "Rivera Home Repair" does not. When one service needs its own identity, most states let you file a DBA (a "doing business as" or assumed name) under the same company, so one LLC can run two brands.

Step 2: Shortlist with a few hard tests

A business name shortlist should be three to five names, cut down with tests that remove names for real reasons rather than taste. Say each one over the phone, ask five people to spell it after hearing it once, and check that it does not box you into one product or town. Then ask how it reads to the people you want to sell to, not to you. In a 2011 reader Q&A, a woman making custom photo DVDs asked whether "Faithful Productions" sounded too religious; our answer in would this company name turn you away? was that part of her market would assume so and never ask. Our 10-point check for a good domain name works just as well on business names.

Step 3: Check business name availability with your state

Business name availability is decided state by state, usually by the Secretary of State, which runs a free online search of registered entities. Search your exact name and close variants. Most states will not register a name that is too close to one already on file, and many treat names that differ only by "LLC," "Inc." or punctuation as the same.

Your LLC name has its own rules. California, for example, requires an LLC name to include "Limited Liability Company" or an abbreviation such as LLC, and it bars words like "bank," "insurance" or "corporation," according to the state's business entity name guidelines. Read your own state's list before you file.

Here is where people go wrong. A state approval is not a trademark. The SBA's guide to choosing your business name says an entity name protects you at the state level, that a DBA "doesn't provide legal protection by itself," and that each kind of name registration is "legally independent." You can get a clean state approval and still be sued by a company with a federal trademark two states away.

Step 4: Search USPTO trademarks

A USPTO trademark search is the check that most often saves a business from a forced rebrand. Use the free USPTO Trademark Search system, which replaced the older TESS database. Search your name, its spelling variations and its sound-alikes, and look at live marks in your industry.

The USPTO refuses marks that create a likelihood of confusion, which looks at whether the marks are similar and whether the goods or services are related. A bakery sharing a name with a software brand may be fine, but a second bakery with a sound-alike name probably is not.

If the name is clear and you plan to use it across state lines, consider filing your own application. The USPTO's base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services, with surcharges if you leave out required information or write your own description instead of using the ID Manual, per the agency's 2025 fee summary. For anything you are about to spend serious money on, a clearance search by a trademark attorney is worth the cost.

Step 5: Check the domain and social handles before you commit

The domain check belongs here, before any filing, because it is the one most likely to change your mind. The old advice in our 2010 guest post was to name the business "for what it is, not for what you can get." We would soften that today. Name it for what it is, then make sure you can actually get the matching .com, or something close, at a price you can live with.

If the exact name is available at a registrar, register it the same day. Then check Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn and X for the same handle. One matching handle everywhere beats a slightly better name with a different handle on each site.

What to do if the .com is taken

You have four realistic options, roughly in order of cost:

1. Add a word. A short, natural addition such as "get," "hq," "shop," your trade or your city keeps the brand intact.
2. Use another extension only if your market expects it. Expect some customers and email to land on the .com anyway.
3. Buy the .com. If it is parked or for sale, our guide on how to buy a domain that is already taken covers contacting owners, brokers and escrow. Even large companies do this later at higher prices. Tesla ran on teslamotors.com for years before acquiring tesla.com in 2016, as Fortune reported.
4. Pick the next name on your shortlist. If the .com is an active business in your field, this is usually the right call, since you would also have a trademark problem.

Step 6: Register the business name, then the rest

Registering a business name means filing with your state, and the order matters less than doing all of it in the same week. A typical sequence:

1. Register the domain and grab the social handles (cheap, fast, and the easiest to lose).
2. File your LLC or corporation with the Secretary of State, or file a DBA if you are a sole proprietor using a name other than your own.
3. Get an EIN from the IRS and open a business bank account in the business name.
4. File a federal trademark application if you will sell across state lines or plan to grow the brand.

Frequently asked questions

How do I name my LLC?

Pick the brand name first, confirm it is available with your state and clear in the USPTO database, then add the required ending, such as "LLC" or "Limited Liability Company." Your state's naming rules list any banned or restricted words.

Does registering an LLC protect my business name?

Only within your state, and only against other entity filings. It does not give you trademark rights nationwide. A federal trademark registration is what protects the brand across the US.

How do I name a business with multiple services?

Choose a name built around your customer or the result you deliver, not one service. If a service later needs its own brand, file a DBA for it under the same company.

Can I use a name if no one has trademarked it?

Not always. Trademark rights in the US can come from use alone, without registration. A business using the name locally may still have rights where it operates, so search the web and state records as well as the USPTO.

Should I buy the domain before forming the LLC?

Yes. It costs little and can be lost in minutes, so register it as soon as the name clears your state and trademark searches.

Your next steps

Write 100 names, cut them to five, and run those five through the state search, the USPTO search, a domain lookup and a handle check in a single sitting. Keep the names that pass all four. Choose from those, register the domain and handles that day, then file with your state. If nothing on your list survives, our guide to brandable domain names shows where to buy a ready-made name.

References

1. U.S. Small Business Administration, "Choose your business name," checked November 7, 2026. sba.gov
2. USPTO, Trademark Search system. tmsearch.uspto.gov
3. USPTO, "Likelihood of confusion." uspto.gov
4. USPTO, "Summary of 2025 trademark fee changes," fees effective January 18, 2025. uspto.gov
5. California Secretary of State, "Business Entity Names: Guidelines and Restrictions," rev. April 2022. sos.ca.gov
6. Fortune, "Tesla Just Dropped a Hint That Big Changes Are Coming," July 19, 2016. fortune.com