How to check if a business name is availableThree different searches, three different authorities, and none of them gives you a yes
There is no single place to look up whether a business name is free. People expect one, the way you would check whether a username is taken, and the absence of it is why so much naming advice is vague. Availability is really three separate questions, answered by three separate authorities, and a clear result from all three still is not permission.
What the three searches actually give you is a list of reasons to stop. That sounds like a lesser thing and it is not. Most shortlisted names die at one of these, cheaply, before anyone has paid for a domain or a vehicle wrap. Run them in the order below, because each one is cheaper to fail than the next.
The three checks, in order
Work down this list. Stop at the first one that fails and go back to your shortlist. The order is deliberate: a domain search takes seconds and kills most candidates, and a trademark attorney's time is the most expensive thing here, so it comes last and only for names that have already survived.
Check 1 of 3
The domain
What it answers. Whether the web address you want is registered to somebody else right now.
What it does not answer. Anything at all about your right to use the name. A free domain is not permission and a taken domain is not a prohibition. Plenty of businesses trade under a name whose exact domain belongs to someone else.
How to run it. Search the exact match at any registrar, then the two or three variations you would genuinely accept. Do the whole shortlist in one sitting rather than one name at a time, because comparing what is actually free decides things faster than comparing what you like.
What a problem looks like. The exact match is parked with a for-sale page, or the only free options are a hyphen or an unusual extension. Treat that as a crowding signal. If a name needs explaining every time you say it out loud, that is a working cost, not just an aesthetic one.
Check 2 of 3
Your state's business register
What it answers. What entity names are already on file with the state you would form in. Every state publishes a searchable register, usually through the Secretary of State or an equivalent office, and it is free to search.
What it does not answer. Whether you may use a name. It covers entities formed in that one state, so it is silent on the other forty-nine. It generally will not show businesses trading under a name they never registered. And clearing this search gives you no trademark rights, which is the single most common misunderstanding in small-business naming: forming an LLC under a name is a corporate filing, not a claim to the name itself.
How to run it. Search your state's business entity database for the exact name and for close variants. Check what the state does with punctuation and entity suffixes, since some registers treat Smith Plumbing LLC and Smith Plumbing Inc as distinguishable and some do not.
What a problem looks like. An exact match, obviously. Less obviously, a near match in the same line of work: a register may accept your filing and you can still end up in a dispute with the business already using it.
Check 3 of 3
The federal trademark database
What it answers. Whether somebody holds a registered federal mark that your name could conflict with. The USPTO's trademark search is public and free to use.
What it does not answer. Whether a conflict actually exists. That is a judgement about similarity and about the goods or services involved, not a string match, and it is genuinely difficult. It also does not cover unregistered marks, which in the United States can carry real rights through use alone.
How to run it. Search your name, then search the distinctive part of it on its own, then search close-sounding alternatives. Pay attention to the class: a registered mark in an unrelated industry is a different situation from one in yours. Read the results as questions rather than as a verdict.
What a problem looks like. A live registration for a similar name in a similar field. This is the point where a trademark attorney stops being optional if you intend to invest in the brand, and where an hour of their time is cheap against a rebrand.
What none of the three cover
This is the part most availability guides skip, and it is the reason a clean sweep is still not a yes.
- Unregistered rights. In the United States, trademark rights can arise from actually using a name in commerce, not only from registering it. A business that has traded under a name in your area for years may have rights it never filed for, and no database will show you that.
- Other states. A business register covers one state. A company two states over is invisible to it.
- Trade names and DBAs. Many businesses operate under a name that is not their registered entity name. Depending on the state, those are filed somewhere else or not at all.
- Social handles and app stores. Not a legal matter, but a practical one, and worth checking before you commit to a name you intend to market.
- The future. All three of these change daily, so every result is a snapshot of the day you happened to look.
None of this is legal advice and this page cannot tell you whether any particular name is available to you. What it can do is tell you what you have and have not ruled out, which is what the three searches are actually for.
How far to take it
How much of this is worth doing depends on what you are about to spend and how hard the name would be to change later. A sole trader testing an idea and a company ordering three vehicle wraps are not in the same position.
| Your situation | How far to go | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Testing an idea, no spend yet | Domain search only | You are choosing between candidates, not committing. Keep it cheap. |
| About to form an entity | Domain, then your state's register | A rejected filing costs time and a fee, and the search is free. |
| Buying signage, wraps or print | All three searches | This is the point where changing the name starts costing real money. |
| Trading in more than one state | All three, then an attorney | One state's register tells you almost nothing about the others. |
| Building a brand you intend to own | All three, then file | Searching tells you what exists. Only registering builds a position. |
When to involve a lawyer
Sooner than most people do, and for less money than most people expect. A trademark attorney reviewing a shortlist of five names is a contained piece of work, and it happens before you have spent anything that would be wasted.
The trigger is not company size, it is reversibility. If the name is going on vehicles, premises, printed materials or a product, the cost of being wrong stops being a rebrand and starts being a replacement. That is the moment to pay somebody to read the trademark results properly, because reading them properly is the part that is genuinely hard.
Take a short list rather than a long one. Five names that have already survived the domain and register searches is a useful brief. Forty names you like is an expensive way to find out that thirty-five of them were never available.
Common questions
If the domain is free, is the name free?
No, and the two are barely related. Domain registration is a private contract with a registrar and it is first come, first served. It carries no rights to the name itself. You can hold a domain and still be unable to trade under the name, and you can trade under a name whose domain belongs to somebody else.
My state approved my LLC name. Does that mean I own it?
No. Forming an entity under a name means the state accepted that filing, in that state. It is not a trademark and it does not stop a business elsewhere from using the same name, or stop one that was already using it from objecting. The two systems are separate and a lot of expensive surprises live in the gap between them.
Someone else is already using the name. Can I still use it?
It depends on where each of you operates, what each of you sells, whether either holds a registered mark, and how similar the names really are. That is a real legal question with a real answer, and it is not one anybody can give you from a list of names or a search result. Work the three searches, then take what you find to somebody qualified.
Do I need to register a trademark?
Not to start trading. You may want to if the name is going to carry real investment, because searching only tells you what already exists, while registering is what builds a position you can defend. It is a cost and a process, and it is worth weighing against what the brand is actually worth.
How long does all this take?
The first two searches take an afternoon for a whole shortlist. The trademark search takes longer to do properly than to do quickly, and getting it reviewed depends on somebody else's calendar. Start before you are in a hurry, because the worst version of this is running the checks after the signage is ordered.
What if I only want to check one name?
Check more than one. Almost everybody arrives with a favourite and almost every favourite has a problem at one of the three steps. Having four alternatives already tested is what turns that from a setback into a decision.
Next
If you are still choosing rather than checking, the name lists are organised by trade, and each one carries the vocabulary that actually signals that industry.