How to search and claim an LLC name in Virginia
- Search Virginia's official entity records at no cost, leaving “LLC” off the name.
- Make sure the name ends with one of Virginia's accepted endings, such as “Limited Company” or “Limited Liability Company”.
- Hold the name with a $10 reservation for 120 days if you need time before filing.
- File the Articles of Organization with the Virginia State Corporation Commission for $100.
- Note the recurring report so the LLC stays in good standing: $50 annual registration fee each year (due by the last day of the month the LLC was formed).
What a Virginia LLC name must include
Virginia accepts these endings for a limited liability company:
- Limited Company
- Limited Liability Company
- L.C.
- LC
- L.L.C.
- LLC
A Virginia LLC's name has to include “limited company”, “limited liability company”, “L.C.”, “LC”, “L.L.C.” or “LLC”. It can't use words or characters that make it look like a corporation, LP, registered LLP or protected series (“Corp.” or “incorporated”, for instance). Per the SCC, “bank” and “trust” are for banking and trust businesses unless the context makes clear the LLC isn't one, and “engineer”, “architecture” and “land surveying” (or derived words) need a lawful right to offer those services. LLCs in banking, lending, brokerage, insurance, savings or trust work can't call themselves “United States”, “national”, “Federal” or “reserve”. Stick to English letters and standard keyboard symbols; a handful, such as braces and angle brackets, are refused.
How Virginia decides two names are the same
Your LLC's name must be distinguishable on the Commission's records from domestic and registered foreign LLCs, stock and nonstock corporations, business trusts and limited partnerships, reserved or registered names, and foreign entities' designated names. The Clerk's Office compares “core names”: it removes required entity words, nondescript articles, conjunctions and prepositions, and certain symbols. Because only those go, a plural survives in the core and makes a difference, while dropping a small word changes nothing: “ABC of Virginia, Inc.” and “ABC Virginia Company” reduce to the same core. If the cores match, you need the other entity's written consent and its promise to change its name. CIS blocks an online LLC formation that uses an indistinguishable name.
Where the rules are written. Va. Code § 13.1-1012 (LLC name); § 13.1-1013 (reserved name); § 13.1-1005 (fees); § 13.1-1062 (annual registration fee); §§ 59.1-69 to 59.1-76 (assumed or fictitious names).
Searching for an LLC name in Virginia
Check the name in the SCC's Clerk's Information System before you file; the entity search and the Name Availability check cost nothing. Compare core names, not full names: take out the ending and the little words, and see what remains. Singular and plural forms count as different in Virginia.
Open the official Virginia 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 2,111,736 Virginia names. When Virginia is selected, the LLC name check also looks your name up in our copy of “Business entity data file”, published by the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Clerk's Office 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: Virginia LLC name reservation
Reserving an LLC name costs $10 for 120 days, filed online in CIS with an account or on paper. Renew during the 45 days before expiration for another $10, and you can keep renewing in 120-day steps.
File a Virginia name reservation
Forming the LLC in Virginia
Articles of Organization cost $100 (Va. Code § 13.1-1005(1)), filed online in CIS or on paper. Online, CIS won't let you form the LLC under a name that's indistinguishable from another on the records.
File the Articles of Organization online
Instead of an annual report, a Virginia LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee (Va. Code § 13.1-1062) each year from the year after formation, due by the last day of the month it was organized. The SCC mails the assessment roughly two months before. Leave it unpaid past the last day of the third month following the due date and the LLC is canceled. No newspaper notice is required. For proof of existence, LLCs get a $6 Certificate of Fact of Existence/Registration, downloadable at once from CIS; good standing certificates are for corporations only. We didn't research Virginia taxes.
When the LLC trades under another name
Trading under any name other than its own? Your LLC registers it with the SCC Clerk's office on a $10 assumed or fictitious name certificate (Va. Code § 59.1-70(C)). The name mustn't intentionally misrepresent the business's geographic origin or location, and until the certificate is on file the business can't maintain a lawsuit.
Sources
- Section13 1 1012, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section13 1 1013, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section13 1 1005, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section13 1 1062, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section59 1 69, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section59 1 70, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Section59 1 76, law.lis.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Business entity names, scc.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Business copies and certificate documents, scc.virginia.gov, checked 2026-10-07
- Annual registration fees, scc.virginia.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.
Common questions
Can two LLCs in Virginia have the same name?
No. Virginia accepts a new LLC name only if it can be told apart from every name on its record. Adding or changing an ending such as “LLC” doesn't make a name different.
How long can I hold an LLC name in Virginia?
120 days, for $10.
Does a new Virginia LLC have to publish a notice?
No. Virginia has no newspaper publication requirement for LLCs.
How much is the Virginia LLC filing fee?
$100, paid when you file the Articles of Organization.