Open your state’s website for filing steps and forms.
California LLC Name Availability
Check your candidates, then compare the names and entity types in California’s official bizfile search.
Check a business name.
We use a third-party name-check service for this preliminary check. It does not search the official state website directly.
Checking your name.
Checking name availability in your selected state.
Your result
Final name approval is made by the state.
About this check
Search a phrase before narrowing the records
California’s Business Search returns records for several entity types. Start with the words you want to investigate and leave the type, status and date filters open so you can see the surrounding records.
- Enter your wording in Search by name or file number and open Advanced.
- Select Contains (Keywords) and Entity Information Search. Set Entity Type and Status to All, and leave both Initial Filing Date fields blank.
- Click Search and wait for it to finish. Keep the query and selected filters with your result notes.
The Pacific Lantern example below returned five records, including corporations, LLCs and a limited partnership. The shared words explain why a row deserves a look; the Entity Type column tells you what kind of record you are reading.
Open California Business Search
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Read the entity type beside a close name
California Corporations Code § 17701.08(b) requires an LLC name to be distinguishable from other LLC names, authorized foreign LLC names and names reserved under § 17701.09. The name also must not be likely to mislead the public.
In the example, Pacific Lantern Properties LLC and PACIFIC LANTERN, LLC are both California LLC records. Choosing All Limited Liability Companies reduced the same query to those two rows during the search. That filter helps you focus on LLC records, but a filtered list is not a complete name-availability determination.
Keep the entity number beside any close match you want to investigate. Active, Suspended or Terminated describes the returned record; a status label alone does not answer whether your proposed name can be filed.
The Secretary of State’s name guidance explains that its availability comparison uses like entity types and does not check trademarks, service marks or fictitious business names. A corporation row therefore raises a different question from an LLC row, without settling your broader right to use the wording.
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The invented query Pacific Lantern Orchard Works returned no results. If a longer phrase returns nothing, try fewer distinctive words as well: Pacific Lantern produced the records above. The agency describes Business Search as preliminary, so neither the empty result nor the row count is formal name clearance.
Check the complete name for prohibited words
A name can return no records and still contain wording California prohibits for an LLC. Section 17701.08(e) says an LLC name must not include bank, trust, trustee, incorporated, inc., corporation or corp.
The same provision prohibits insurer, insurance company and other words suggesting that the business issues insurance policies and assumes insurance risks.
Section 17701.08(a) also requires limited liability company, L.L.C. or LLC in the name. Limited may be shortened to Ltd., and company to Co. In the Naming Desk, choosing an ending changes the filing-name presentation you save or copy; it does not rerun the candidate’s check.
Plan the reservation around your filing date
In Business Forms, find Name Reservations and open Entity Name Reservation - Corporation, LLC, LP. Its description says a separate reservation is unnecessary when you are concurrently filing formation or registration documents. If you need to hold a name first, FILE ONLINE takes you to sign-in.
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Section 17701.09(a) allows a reservation for up to 60 days. It bars consecutive 60-day reservations for the same applicant or for the use or benefit of the same person, including sufficiently similar names covered by the naming rule.
The agency’s reservation guidance specifies at least one day between reservation periods. Plan for that gap if your filing will take longer; do not treat renewal as uninterrupted protection.
Official California references
- California Secretary of State Business Programs Division: Business Search: controls and example results observed September 15, 2026.
- Business Forms: reservation description and sign-in route observed September 15, 2026.
- Cal. Corp. Code § 17701.08: LLC names and prohibited wording, checked September 15, 2026.
- Cal. Corp. Code § 17701.09: reservation period and consecutive-reservation limits, checked September 15, 2026.
- Name Reservations guidance: comparison scope, search limits and the gap between reservations, checked September 15, 2026.