Connecticut LLC name search

What a Connecticut LLC name must include

Connecticut accepts these endings for a limited liability company:

• Limited Liability Company
• L.L.C.
• LLC

Connecticut doesn't publish a list of barred words for LLC names. The limit is about meaning: the name can't state or imply that the LLC is organized for a purpose the law doesn't allow (C.G.S. § 34-243k(f)). Inside the endings, “Limited” may be shortened to “Ltd.” and “Company” to “Co.”

How Connecticut decides two names are the same

Connecticut sets aside entity words like LLC, LLP, Inc. and Ltd. before comparing (C.G.S. § 34-243k(d)). The remaining name has to be distinguishable from all entities on record, whatever their type, from businesses registered to operate in the state, and from reserved and registered names.

Where the rules are written. C.G.S. § 34-243k (LLC); § 34-243l (reservation); § 33-655 (corporations).

Searching for an LLC name in Connecticut

Connecticut's Business Records Search, on business.ct.gov, is free and lists every domestic and foreign entity, LLCs included. It doesn't hold trade names, which live with the town clerks, so a name used only as a local trade name won't appear.

Open the official Connecticut entity search

Leave the ending off when you search, so every version of the name shows up, then compare each result word by word. If one matches apart from spacing, punctuation or a plural, change a real word in your name.

Checked against 1,292,045 Connecticut names. When Connecticut is selected, the LLC name check also looks your name up in our copy of “Connecticut Business Registry - Business Master”, published by the Connecticut Secretary of the State and last updated October 7, 2026. Matches come back in three lists: the same words, longer names that open with yours, and names starting with the same two words. Each shows the entity's type, status and number. The state's own search is still the final word, since its records move ahead of our copy.

Holding the name: Connecticut LLC name reservation

A Connecticut name reservation is $60 and lasts 120 days, with the filing date counted as the first day. File it online or on form BUS-002.

File a Connecticut name reservation

Forming the LLC in Connecticut

The Certificate of Organization creates the LLC and appoints its registered agent in the same filing; the fee is $120.

File the Certificate of Organization online

Every year between January 1 and March 31, a Connecticut LLC files its annual report, which has cost $80 for years from July 1, 2020. The Secretary of the State levies no franchise tax on LLCs, and no newspaper notice is needed after forming. Proof of good standing comes as a Certificate of Legal Existence: $50 for the short form, $100 for the long form available to domestic entities.

When the LLC trades under another name

An LLC using a name other than its own files a trade name certificate with the town clerk in the town where it mainly does business (C.G.S. § 35-1); the Secretary of the State doesn't take these.

Sources

• Chap 613a, cga.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Chap 601, cga.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Domestic limited liability companies forms and fees, business.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Purpose of reserving a name, business.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Certificate of legal existence forms and fees, business.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Tradename, portal.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07
• Annual report frequently asked questions (PDF), portal.ct.gov, checked 2026-10-07

These are the official pages behind every fact above. If one of them now says something different, it's right and this page is out of date.

A few were read from search results, not the page itself, because the site refused direct requests; treat the facts they back as provisional until the Connecticut Secretary of the State confirms them.