Your LLC’s name carries more weight than you might think. It needs to be unique and memorable for customers, as well as act as the legal name that’ll appear on your business’s formal documents. You’ll use this name, referred to as a “trade name,” for everything from setting up your business’s bank account and signing contracts to representing yourself in legal cases.

Your LLC’s name must be approved by the state agency that handles your application to form an LLC. In most states, this agency is the Office of Secretary of State, but it may be a different agency in some states.

If the Secretary of State rejects your company name, it’ll reject your application to file articles of organization and legally establish your LLC. So check your state agency’s website for the LLC naming requirements in your state.

When picking a name for your LLC, it needs to be unique, memorable, and legally compliant. Check your individual state requirements, and keep these key considerations in mind:

All states require LLC names to include these words or abbreviations to make it clear the entity is an LLC (not a corporation or type of entity). Typically, your business’s name must end with the words “Limited Liability Company,” "company” or “Limited.” Or you can use abbreviations like “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” or “Ltd.” Usually, you can even opt to abbreviate the words “Limited” and “Company” as “Ltd.” and “Co.” (Most people just stick with “LLC”.)

Here are some ways you could legally name your LLC:

Make sure your name doesn’t suggest or imply your business is an inaccurate type of enterprise.

Your LLC’s name can’t contain the words like “bank,” “trust,” “trustee,” “insurer,” “insurance company” or any other words suggesting you’re in the insurance business (unless you are).

You can’t include things like “incorporated,” “inc.” or “corporation,” because your LLC is not a corporation.

Choose a name that’ll stand out and help customers remember you and distinguish you clearly from any other company for legal and branding purposes. Some branding experts recommend starting business names with a hard consonant or incorporating alliteration to make it more memorable.

Choose a name your customer can easily use in a sentence. It should be appealing, memorable, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. Unless it’s integral to your brand, avoid words that are likely to be censored in media and anything containing special characters that are hard to type or reproduce on some platforms.

Think about including words that reflect what your business does. If you’re in web design, something like “Web Innovations, LLC” tells potential customers exactly what you do right off the bat, which can also help with SEO.

You can’t use terms that imply your company is organized for any reason other than the permitted use. So, if you include words like “medical” or “attorney,” for example, you might have to file additional paperwork and prove a relevant licensed professional is part of your LLC.

Choose a name that won’t limit your business as it grows. For example, if you name your LLC “Florida Beach Weddings, LLC,” what happens when you want to expand to offer services in other states?

Before settling on a name, search:

While registering your LLC name secures it at the state level, consider trademarking if you want nationwide protection. This prevents others from using your brand name and benefits your marketing and legal protection.

You might be able to register your LLC name with your Secretary of State to use as your company’s formal legal name. But that doesn’t give you the right to use the name, or anything similar, as your brand name — i.e. the name you use to sell your products or services.

If another company has your name trademarked, you’ll be restricted from using it for anything beyond your financials and legal documents.

For example, you might be able to register “Apple Accounting, LLC” in your state. But if you try to market your services under the “Apple” brand name, you might run into trademark violations because of a certain computer corporation.

Registering your LLC name isn’t the same thing as trademarking the name or using it as a trademark, so make sure you understand this distinction to protect your business from copycats.

Your brand might match your business name, or it might not. For example, Francesca Jimenez might register her business as “Jimenez Consulting Ltd.,” but promote her business publicly as “Grow With Fran.” In that case, Jimenez Consulting Ltd. is her LLC name, and Grow With Fran is her trademark (a.k.a. brand).

Your trademark is automatically protected under common law, so someone else can’t imitate you by doing business under your trademark. But that doesn’t usually give you exclusive rights to the brand. For that, you have to register the trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). (That’s the difference between the (™) and ® symbols you see after a name.)

To avoid confusion for your customers or clients, you can use your trademark name on legal and financial documents by registering a DBA with your state.

DBA stands for “doing business as,” and you obtain it by filing a fictitious name statement or assumed name certificate.

In some states, you can file with the Office of the Secretary for a DBA that applies statewide. In others, you have to file at the county or municipal level and may have to file more than one statement if you do business in more than one location.

Just like your LLC, your DBA name can’t be the same or similar to another DBA on file, and it can’t violate a trademark. Try the search methods above to make sure you’re in the clear.

It is possible to change the name of your business in the future, but it can be a complicated process. The simplest method for a name change is to file a DBA, if you plan on doing business under both your original name as well as your new business name.

Completely switching over your business entity to a new name will require filing paperwork with your state, and will typically involve a name change filing fee. There could be other costs related to rebranding as well, such as creating a new logo, registering a new domain name, and re-printing any physical materials.

If you are completely stumped on business names you could consider using an online business name generator tool to help brainstorm possible LLC name ideas. It’s probably not a good idea to rely on the tool completely, but it can be a good way to generate some business name ideas that you can build on.

You can name your LLC anything you want, as long as it complies with your state’s LLC naming guidelines. Naming an LLC after yourself comes with the benefit of being able to easily use that name to sell any products or services you want in the future without brand confusion. It comes with the drawback that the name could be limiting if you want to grow the business beyond yourself or sell it in the future. In some cases, such as licensed professional service providers in some states or occupations, you must use your name.

You can include “LLC” in your legal business name in any way that makes the company’s structure clear, including “Limited,” “Ltd.,” “LLC,” “L.L.C.,” “Limited Liability Company,” “Limited Liability Co.” and more. You don’t have to include this information in your trademark, including the business name you include in your logo or business cards.

Your LLC name can be different from your business trademark, the name you use to market your business. There’s no legal requirement that they match. But you may have to register a DBA for your trademark name if you want to use it for legal and financial purposes.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this document is provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or tax advice. It is not intended to be a substitute for obtaining accounting or other financial advice from an appropriate financial adviser or for the purpose of avoiding U.S. Federal, state or local tax payments and penalties.