When you meet someone new, what’s the first thing you want to know about them? Their name. Your name is unique—it’s how people remember you.
The same goes for your New York business: choosing your name is the most important step of forming your company. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as just picking the name you like best from a list. That works for babies, but not businesses. New York has several requirements that you’ll need to follow as you pick a name.
Fortunately, this five-step guide will help you pick a name that is both perfect for your business and compliant with state laws. We’ll also cover how to reserve your name once you’ve picked it. Let’s get started.
NOTE: If you have found the perfect business name and would like to begin the process of registering your business with the state, there are a lot of online LLC services — like LegalZoom and Zen Business — that can do it for you.
1) Review New York Name Requirements
New York has three primary requirements for naming your business. First, your name must include a designation of the type of company you’re forming. For example, if you’re forming a Limited Liability Company, you’ll need to include “LLC,” “Limited Liability Company,” or an abbreviation of those terms. Corporations must include “Inc.,” “Incorporated,” “Corporation,” etc. Regardless of what kind of entity you make, your name should reflect your business type.
Second, your name must be distinguishable from other business entities in New York. If it’s too similar to another name, your filings could get mixed up with the paperwork for the wrong entity. And worse, a super-similar business name could confuse your customers.
For example, “New York Lawn Care Bros, LLC” and “New York Lawn Care Bros, Inc” are too close. It’s usually not enough to have a difference in entity type identifier only; the difference must be more significant than that to count as “distinguishable.” As a general rule of thumb, your name should both look and sound different from the names of other entities in the state.
Finally, New York restricts the use of certain words in your business name. For example, words like “bank,” “trust,” “doctor,” “lawyer,” and other regulated professions cannot be included in your title unless you’re authorized to use them.
For a full listing of naming requirements, you can consult the Business Corporation Section of the Consolidated Laws of New York.
2) Create the Perfect Name for Your New York Business
Now that we’ve covered all the things you can’t do with your business name, let’s focus on what you can do. Here’s where you can let your creativity shine. As long as you meet New York’s requirements, you can pick just about anything you like.
However, to make your business name perfect, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Pick a name that represents your business: Your business name is the first impression you’ll send to potential customers; you want to make sure it’s the right impression. So, be sure to include important aspects of your business in your name. For example, if you’re starting a restaurant that specializes in vegan fare, you’ll want that to be clear by your business name.
- Write it down and say it aloud: Your business name appears everywhere—business cards, your website, company signage, and more. A good name will look good on paper. But you’ll also say your name a lot, too, so make sure it sounds as good as it looks.
- Choose a name that you’re proud of: Do you like the name you’ve come up with? You love your business, and you should love the name that goes with it. If you love the name, then you’re good to move on to step three.
3) Search Your Chosen Name with the New York Department of State
Now it’s time to check that your business name is available in the state of New York. To do so, you’ll want to run a Business Entity Name Search.
Here’s how it works: input the business name you developed in Step 2. If the state’s search tool doesn’t find any results, then good news! Your name is available for you to use in New York. However, if it does find a match, you’ll want to start over or tweak your name a little to make sure it’s different from what’s currently in use in the state.
For your purposes, we recommend that you use the default “Active” filter when searching. Using “All” would pull up any and all results. But only active entity names are unavailable for use, so those are the ones you’ll want to search. New York’s tool allows you to complete a very thorough search. First, type in your exact name with the “Begins With” filter applied. This will alert you to any exact matches to your desired name. If there is one, you’ll need to change yours.
You could also run a keyword search using the “Contains” filter. For example, if your desired name is “Sarah’s Cupcakes,” you could search “Cupcakes” to learn what other businesses use similar names. By knowing the names of your competition, you can make your name truly stand out.
While this step may seem like a hassle, it can save you time in the long run. You’ll need to put your business name on your formation documents; if you put down a name that’s already in use, the state will send it back to you, request a change, and you’ll need to file all over again. This could potentially slow down your start-up process by several days or even weeks. Searching your name ahead of time prevents that slow-down.
4) Reserve Your Business Name with New York
You’ve done the legwork to make sure your business name is free to use in New York. Now, let’s ensure that none of that work goes to waste by reserving your business name with the state.
In New York, you can reserve a business name by filing an Application for Reservation of Name. This is the form for corporations; you can find the same form for other entities here. You can file this form by mail with the Department of State. This form requests some information about your business, including your entity type, the name and address of the applicant, a signature, and of course, your desired name.
New York requires a fee of $20 for this name reservation. You can pay by check made payable to the Department of State.
Reserving your name will protect your business name for 60 days. While it’s unlikely that another person will come up with the exact name you’ve chosen, this process prevents anyone else from using your name. The 60-day-long reservation gives you plenty of time to get all your affairs in order and file your formation documents.
5) File Your New York Formation Documents
Even though filing a reservation gives you 60 days of exclusive rights to the name you’ve created, you’ll need to file your formation documents to make everything official. The document you need to use varies depending on the type of business you’re forming, but it’s often called the Articles of Incorporation or the Articles of Organization.
The Division of Corporations, State Records, & UCC of the New York Department of State serves as a helpful starting point for forming your business. Here you’ll find the forms you need to start your business, including the New York Certificate of Incorporation. You’ll also find easy access to forms such as name reservations, amendments, registered agent changes, and more.
Conclusion
Conducting a business name search is an important part of forming your business in New York. The search saves you time and helps you set up a name that makes your business stand out. We hope this guide made it simple to name your business.