How to Choose a Small Business Name

While determining name availability seems like it should be a simple matter, in reality there are a few different place you should check.

Secretary of State's office

When you incorporate, you'll do so at the state level. (If you're forming an unincorporated entity, such as a sole proprietorship, you may also need to check at the county level as well.) Contact your Secretary of State's business division, or look for an online database on their website, to be sure that no one else in your state has incorporated under that name. This is the first hurdle, as your Articles of Incorporation (your formation document) will be rejected for filing if the name is already in use in your state.

Neighboring states

If you can see yourself expanding geographically in the future, it wouldn't hurt to check the databases of your neighboring states as well so you can have a reasonable idea, at least as of right now, that you'll be able to use the same business name you used in your initial state. While there are procedures for out-of-state businesses to select a new name for use in the new state, if it turns out that your legal business name is already taken, common sense dictactes that you'd want to retain your name recognition if at all possible.

Registered trademarks

While your state name availability search tells you whether you'll be allowed to file in that state, what it doesn't do is tell you whether or not anyone has registered a trademark, which is a form of federal protection. Simply go to the US Patent and Trademark Office's website and do a quick search for your name, see what comes up. (If it's available, you might consider registering your business name as a trademark yourself!)

Unregistered trademarks

An unregistered trademark, while it doesn't receive all of the protection that a registered trademark would, can still receive common law rights to the trademark. Of course, unregistered trademarks, by definition, will not be found in the USPTO database; tracking them down will take a little bit more digging. Try going an Internet search on the name, the acronyms, and any domain name variations. (Since most businesses will want some kind of online presence, even if it's just a website with some photos and contact info, you'll want to know if your name—or a logical derivative of it—is available as a URL.)

While each government entity discussed above has the ultimate final say in name availability, and legal issues are best handled by lawyers or legal advisors, if you've gone through each of the above areas and searched for your proposed business name, you can be reasonably confident that you can move forward and register your business with your new name. Good luck!

What's your angle with your business name? Witty? Funny? Cutting edge? Whatever it is, fight consumer fatigue by engaging your potential consumers with you best shot at a first impression—a great business name.

If your business name is unique, not only is that name more likely to be available for use in your chosen location, but a catchy name will serve to attract customers.

Here's an idea you may not have thought of: don't be afraid to mash words together to create your own business name with a unique, personal meaning. Many English words are derived from Latin word-parts: "aquifer" from "aqui-", meaning water, for instance. With a little bit of creativity, you can combine Latin words and create your own unique combination.

***Note: while a unique business name is a great characteristic, temper your creativity with the fact that in order to benefit from word of mouth—free advertisement!—your customers will need to be able to say your business name. Keep it fresh, but keep it pronounceable.

While it might seem like a sound idea to name your business something very specific and informative -- Saint Paul Domestic Auto Repair, for example, gives the customers a solid idea where you are and what you're about -- many entrepreneurs caution against painting yourself into a corner with your business name.

Here are two issues you might face, and what you might do about it:

Location-specific names can make it difficult to expand into other markets.

If you've got "Denver Trucking" in your business name, what happens when your business booms so much you decide to open a branch in Aspen? Certainly, you can open a DBA—but if your business name hadn't been quite so specific from the beginning, you'd be able to benefit from the name recognition you've built up. In this situation, you would just have to build a new market in Aspen under your new DBA name.

Service- or product-specific names can artificially limit your business offerings.

When you're considering adding products or services, you should take into account things like your available market, warehousing costs, staffing issues, and risk factor—and if your business name is artificially limiting your growth potential, that's a problem.

Here's an example: If your business name is Jonathan's Bus Tours, but you're considering starting a local service involving bike tours, will you be as open to the possibility as you might have been if you had named your business Jonathan's Tour Adventures or something similar? Again, you can certainly file a DBA, and this is completely fine (and in some cases even prefereable).

The bottom line: Don't let your business name limit your growth potential, even if it's just a matter of clearing a mental hurdle. Your market and your strengths should dictate the direction of your business—not your business name.