LLC name search

Yes. Every state requires an LLC's name to show that it's a limited liability company, usually with 'Limited Liability Company', 'LLC' or 'L.L.C.'. Some states accept a few other forms, listed on each state page.

Yes. Each state checks names only against its own register, so an LLC in Ohio doesn't block the same name in Texas. Trademark rights are separate and can cross state lines.

Almost never. Most states ignore the ending when they compare names, so 'Blue Fox LLC' clashes with an existing 'Blue Fox Inc.'. Colorado and Minnesota are the exceptions we've confirmed: there the ending itself can make two names different. California compares an LLC's name only with other LLCs.

A few minutes: the check above shows what to search, and most state searches return results immediately. Approval itself comes when the state reviews your filing.

For Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and West Virginia it does: we keep a copy of those states' business registers, and the check lists the names on it that share your words; for Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Kentucky, New Jersey and North Dakota it asks the state's own search as you check; and for Arizona, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming it reads the records we've copied so far, where a match means the name is taken but a miss isn't a promise. In the other states it links the official search, and in every state that search is the one that counts.

No. It's an independent check that prepares the search and links the state's official one, where the result counts.

Yes, with no account. The name you type is looked up and not kept, and most states' own name searches are free too; each state page says which charge.

Yes. An LLC exists once the state accepts its formation filing, and the state's register of LLCs is open to anyone: its name, its status and, in most states, its registered agent show on the state's free search.

Look the LLC up on its state's business search. The record lists the people its filings name, which may be just a registered agent or may include organizers, managers or members. Our sister site, businessna.me, searches those names across states, so the other companies a person is named on show up too.