Delaware Corporation Names: Rules, Search, and Registration

Filing fee: $109 minimum (increases based on authorized shares and par value)

Processing time: [PROCESSING_TIME]

State agency: Delaware Division of Corporations

Annual report due: [ANNUAL_REPORT_DUE]

State tax rate: [STATE_TAX_RATE]

Delaware corporation names must be unique, include an approved corporate designator like 'Corporation,' 'Incorporated,' or 'Limited' (or an abbreviation), and avoid restricted words. Before you file a Certificate of Incorporation, you need to confirm your chosen name is available through the Delaware Division of Corporations.

General naming rules for all corporations

These rules apply to corporations in every state, including Delaware. Your name must be unique and not confusable with any existing business registered in the state. Delaware won't treat minor differences as enough to distinguish 2 names — the following variations don't count as making a name distinct:

• Suffixes like Corporation, Company, Incorporated, Limited, Corp., Co., or Inc.

• Definite articles: 'A,' 'An,' or 'The'

• The conjunction 'And' or '&'

• Numbers in place of numerals — '1 World' and 'One World' are treated as the same name

• Singular, plural, or possessive forms of the same word

• Abbreviations, punctuation, symbols, fonts, or typefaces

Your name also can't suggest affiliation with a government agency, use the term 'Olympic' or any International Olympic Committee trademark, or imply a purpose that would be illegal for your business to carry out.

Delaware-specific naming rules

Under Delaware Code Title 8, Chapter 1, § 102, your corporation name must include at least 1 of the following words or an approved abbreviation: 'association,' 'company,' 'corporation,' 'club,' 'foundation,' 'fund,' 'incorporated,' 'institute,' 'society,' 'union,' 'syndicate,' or 'limited.' The name cannot contain the word 'trust,' 'bank,' or any variation of 'bank' unless the entity is a bank supervised by the State Bank Commissioner.

Delaware's naming rules catch people off guard more often than you'd expect — the bank and trust restrictions in particular apply even when the word appears incidentally in a business name.

Before you file or reserve a name, check whether it's available using the Delaware Division of Corporations' Name Availability Search tool. Enter your proposed name, select 'Corporation' as the entity kind, and choose a corporate ending from the dropdown. The tool shows availability in real time — if the name is taken, it displays a notification in red.

Delaware also has a separate Business Entity Search tool that lets you browse existing registered entities by name or file number. That's useful for reviewing similar names that might create confusion, even if they don't exactly match yours.

Reserving a name in Delaware is optional — you don't have to reserve before you file. But if you're not ready to file your Certificate of Incorporation yet, a reservation holds your chosen name for 120 days while no other entity can register it. The state fee is $75, and you can file the reservation online through the Delaware Division of Corporations and pay by credit card.

If you're ready to incorporate now, skip the reservation and include your chosen name directly in the Certificate of Incorporation. That's the more common path — the reservation step exists for founders who need more time before they're ready to file.

A Delaware corporation can do business under a name that's different from its legal name. Delaware calls this a fictitious name or trade name — other states call it a DBA (doing business as). Your legal name stays on file with the Division of Corporations, but you can operate publicly under the trade name.

Trade name registration in Delaware is changing. Under House Bill 40, trade name registrations are being centralized through the Delaware Division of Revenue via the Delaware One Stop system, moving away from the previous county-level filings with Superior Court prothonotaries. If you're registering a fictitious name, check the current process through the Delaware Division of Revenue before filing.

A trade name is not the same as a trademark. Registering a fictitious name gives you the right to use it in Delaware, but it doesn't protect the name from use by others in other states or in federal commerce.

Checking that your corporation name is available in Delaware doesn't tell you whether it infringes on a federally registered trademark. Those are 2 separate systems. A name can be available in Delaware's state registry and still be protected by a federal trademark — and using it could put you on the hook for infringement claims.

Before you finalize your name, run a trademark search through the USPTO's database. If the name is clear, you can apply to register it as a federal trademark to protect your brand across all states. A legal professional can help you figure out whether your name creates any trademark risk.

Once you've confirmed your name is available and meets Delaware's requirements, you have 2 ways to register it. You can reserve the name for 120 days by filing a Name Reservation Application with the Delaware Division of Corporations and paying the $75 state fee. Or, if you're ready to incorporate, include your chosen name in the Certificate of Incorporation when you file — the minimum state filing fee for a Certificate of Incorporation is $109, and the actual fee increases based on the number of authorized shares and their par value.

Delaware also requires every corporation to maintain a registered agent with a physical street address in the state. The registered agent receives service of process and official notices on behalf of the corporation and must be available during normal business hours.