When you have a unique name for your California corporation or LLC, we’ll help you legally form your business through our quick, easy, and inexpensive CA entity formation process.
To search for California business entities, just enter your details in the box below, and we’ll take care of everything else.
If You Want to Start a New Business in California, You Need the Right Name
You can look up your proposed business name in California and see if it’s available for you to form a corporation or LLC. We’ll check your proposed business name against the registry of businesses held by the California Secretary of State.
Free Business Name Search
We’ll take care of the entity search.
California Rules on Naming Your corporation or LLC
Once you’ve checked to see if your California business name is available, you’ll need to confirm it follows certain naming rules.
Your California business name should not be confusable with or similar to another business in CA.
Normally, you cannot imply connection with a California state entity or that you will be carrying out activities your CA business is not legally able to provide.
If your California business is an LLC, it must contain “Limited Liability Company” or an abbreviation. If it’s a corporation, it must contain a word like “Incorporated,” “Corporation” or something similar.
California Limited Liability Company Naming Rules
In addition to the general rules listed above, the California Secretary of State has some specific business naming rules for your LLC. You will need to follow these rules if you want to name your CA business appropriately.
The business name may not include the words "corporation, corp, trustee, bank, trust, incorporated or inc.".
Your California business name cannot include any words suggesting you are an insurer or assume insurance risks.
The business name cannot include “Agency,” “Commission,” “Department,” “Bureau,” “Division,” “Municipal” or “Board”.
Although these are the main rules about naming your business in California, there are plenty more. You can find additional rules about naming your California business on the California Secretary of State website.
California Corporation Naming Rules
There are additional, specific rules you will need to follow from the California Secretary of State for naming your CA S Corporation or C Corporation.
Using the following words in a corporation name requires special approval from a regulatory body: bank, trust, trustee or related words; credit union or related words; cooperative or any abbreviation of that word; insurer, insurance or related words.
The name of a flexible purpose corporation must contain the words "flexible purpose corporation" or an abbreviation of those words.
The name of a corporation authorized to incorporate as a professional corporation must comply with the name style requirements of the regulatory agency which has jurisdiction over the particular profession.
Form Your California LLC or Corporation Quickly and Easily
Form Your California LLC or Corporation Quickly and Easily
Common Questions About California Entity Searches