Illinois Corporate and LLC Naming Rules

Illinois Corporate and LLC Name Search from ClickandInc.com

If you seek to incorporate, become an LLC, or choose to become any other sort of legally recognized business entity in the state of Illinois, you will need to follow all rules and regulations set forth by the Secretary of State for Corporate Naming.  You should absolutely familiarize yourself with Illinois's Corporate  Naming Rules before filing your Illinois Articles of Incorporation or Illinois Articles of Organization. ClickandInc.com can take all the guesswork out of the process for you by running an Illinois Corporate Name Search. Our search will tell you if your preferred business name is available in the State of Illinois.

In Illinois, your business's name must be distinguishable from the names of all other registered business entities. By distinguishable, Illinois means to convey that your business's name must be substantially different than any other business name. For example, let's say you want to name your company Kitchen Supply Company but there is already another business named Kitchen Supply Unlimited. These two names are not distinguishable from each other. They are similar enough that a customer or consumer may not realize that they are two separate businesses.

The Illinois State Business Code states that all corporations in Illinois are required to use one of the following corporate endings: Corporation, Incorporated or Limited. The abbreviations corp., inc., and ltd. are also permissible. If you are forming an Illinois LLC, your company name must include the term Limited Liability Company or its abbreviations LLC or L.L.C.

Illinois has other restrictions on naming your business. Certain words such as those having to do with banking and insurance require special approvals. Additionally, there may be other words that are prohibited by Illinois law for use in your company's name. Check with the Illinois Secretary of State or with ClickandInc.com's  Illinois Name Search for more information.

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