Business Name Conventions and Policies

If a business name is distinguishable from the other names and trademarks on the records of the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code ("Division"), the Division may authorize the use of the desired name. See Utah Code Ann. 16-6a-401 (2001), 16-10a-401(2) (2000), 16-11-16(4) (2000), 42-2-6.6(3)(a)(2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(2) (2014).

• Corporation - The name must include "corporation," "incorporated," "company," "corp.," "inc.," or "co." See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(1)(a) (2000).
• Nonprofit Corporation - The name may include "corporation," "incorporated," "corp.," or "inc." See Utah Code Ann. 16-6a-401 (2001).
• Professional Corporation - The name must include "professional corporation" or "P.C." See Utah Code Ann. 16-11-16(1)(a) (2000). The name of a professional corporation may not include "incorporation," or "inc." See Utah Code Ann. 16-11-16(1)(b) (2000).
• DBA - The name may not include "incorporation" or "inc.," unless a foreign or domestic profit or nonprofit corporation owns the DBA and the Division has authorized the use of "incorporation" or "inc." See Utah Code Ann. 42-2-6.6(1)(e)-(2)(d) (2000).
• Limited Liability Company - The name must include "limited company," "limited liability company," "L.C.," or "L.L.C." See Utah Code Ann. 48-3a-108 (2014). The name of a limited liability company may not include "association," "corporation," "incorporated," "limited partnership," or "L.P." See Utah Code Ann. 48-3a-108(8).
• Professional Limited Liability Company - must contain the words "professional limited liability company" or the abbreviations "P.L.L.C." or "PLLC". See Utah Code Ann. 48-3a-1104 & 48-3a-108 (2014).
• Low-Profit Limited Liability Company - The name of a low-profit limited liability company shall contain the abbreviation "L3C" or "l3c". See Utah Code Ann. 48-3a-1302 (2014).
• Limited Liability Partnership - The name must include "limited liability partnership," or "L.L.P." See Utah Code Ann. 48-1d-1105(2) (2014).
• Limited Partnership - The name must include "limited partnership," "limited," "L.P.," or "Ltd." See Utah Code Ann. 48-2e-108(2) (2014). The name of a limited partnership may not include "association," "corporation," "incorporated," "assoc.," "corp." or "inc." See Utah Code Ann. 48-2e-108(10)(a)&(b) (2014). The name of a limited partner may contain the name of any partner. See Utah Code Ann. 48-2e-108(1) (2014).
• Business Trust - The words "business trust" must be used as the last words of the name. See Utah Code Ann. 16-15-103(1) (1995).
• Business Development Corporation - The name must include "business development corporation." See Utah Code Ann. 16-13-1 (1992).

The Division will use the following criteria to determine if a name is distinguishable from all others on record:

1. One of the key words is different. A "key word" means any word other than articles, prepositions, conjunctions or entity identifiers such as "corporation," "incorporated," "company," etc.
   Example: "Diana's Creations" vs. "Diana's Delights"
2. The key words are the same, but are in a different order.
   Example: "Windows Wash" vs. "Wash Windows"
3. The key words are the same, but the spelling is creative, unusual or artistic.
   Example: "Diana's Creations" vs. "Diana's Cre8ns"
4. The key words have a marked difference in meaning in their contexts and the words are not literally identical.
   Example: "Capital Builders" vs. "Capitol Builders"

1. The presence or absence of, or differences between, the following words and abbreviations when they are the last word in a name: "corporation," "company," "incorporated," "limited," "professional corporation," "corp.," "co.," "inc.," "Ltd.," "P.C.", "Limited Liability Company", "LLC", "Limited Company", "LC", "Limited Partnership", "LP", "Limited", "L3C", or "Low-Profit LLC". See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(i) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(i) (2000), 48-2e-108(6) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(a) (2014).
   Example: "Books Inc." vs. "Books"
2. The presence or absense of the words or symbols of the words "the," "and," "a," or "plus." See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(ii) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(ii) (2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(c) (2014). According to Division policy, the difference between the use of ampersand and the word "and" is not distinguishable. Ampersand is the equivalent of the word "and."
   Example: "The Book Store" vs. "Book Store"
3. Differences in punctuation: Apostrophe, left bracket, right bracket, colon, comma, dash or hyphen, exclamation point, left parenthesis, right parenthesis, period, question mark, semicolon, and slash. Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(iii) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(iii) (2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(d) (2014).
   Example: "USAphones" vs. "U.S.A. phones"
4. Differences in the use of special characters: Asterisk, backslash, left brace, right brace, caret, at sign, cents sign, dollar sign, equal-to sign, greater than, less than, number sign, percentage sign, plus sign, underline, and tilde. See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(iii) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(iii) (2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(d) (2014).
   Example: "Mountain Place" vs. "#Mountain Place"
5. "Differences in capitalization." Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(iv) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(iv)(2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(e) (2014).
   Example: "USAphones" vs. "USAPHONES"
6. Differences between the singular and plural forms of words. Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(v)(2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(f) (2014).
   Example: "The Bookstores" vs. "The Bookstore"
7. Differences in whether the words or numbers are joined together, or a space separates them. See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(vi) (2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5)(d) (2014).
   Example: "The Side Walk" vs. "The Sidewalk"
8. Differences in abbreviations. Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(5)(b)(vii) (2000), 16-11-16(6)(b)(v) (2000), 48-2e-108(4) (2014), 48-3a-108(5) (2014).
   Example: "Big Mountain" vs. "Big Mtn."

1. The Division shall not approve requested names which suggest in any way that it is an agency of the state or any of its political subdivisions without authorization to register such a name. See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(6) (2000), 16-11-16(2) (2000), 42-2-6.6(7) (2000), 48-3a-108(6) (2014).
2. The name may not suggest in any way that the entity is organized for a purpose other than that provided for in its articles of incorporation, organization, or application. See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(1)(b)(2000), 16-11-16(1)(c) (2000), 42-2-6.6(1)(a) (2000).
3. The registered name shall either be translated into English or written in letters of the English alphabet. See Utah Code Ann. 16-6a-401 (2001), 42-2-6.6(4) (2000).
4. Nonprofit agricultural cooperatives are the only entities authorized to use the word "cooperative" in a business name. See Utah Code Ann. 3-1-5(2)(a)(i) (1994) & Utah Code Ann. 16-16-111.

There are restrictions on the use of certain words in an entity's name. Before submitting an application to the Division of Corporations and Commercial Code, any business name applicant whose name includes a restricted word must obtain written consent from the appropriate agency. The following is a list of the agencies that need to be contacted in order to obtain permission to use the corresponding restricted words:

United States Olympic Committee
"Olympic"
"Olympiad"
"Citius Altius Fortius"

See Utah Code Ann. 16-10a-401(1)(c) (2000), 16-6a-24 (2001), 16-11-16(1)(d) (2000), 42-2-6.6(1)(c)(2000), 48-2a-102(d) (2000), 48-2c-106 (2001).

Department of Financial Institutions
"Bank"
"Banker"
"Banking"
"Banc"
"Banque"
"Banco"
"Bancorp"
"Bancorporation"
"Bankcard"
"Bancard"

See Utah Code Ann. 7-1-701(3)(a)-(b) (1998).

"Savings Association"
"Building Association"
"Savings and Loan Assoc."
"Building and Loan Assoc."
"Savings Bank"

See Utah Code Ann. 7-1-701(4)(a)-(5) (1994).

"Industrial Loan Corp."
"ILC"
"Thrift"
"Credit Union"

See Utah Code Ann. 7-1-701(6)-(7)(1994).

"Trust"
"Trustee"
"Trust Company"

See Utah Code Ann. 7-1-701(8)(1994).

"ESCROW" or "escrow"

See Utah Code Ann. 7-22-102

Written approval from the Commissioner of the Department of Financial Institutions is needed if any of the listed words or their derivatives are to be used in a business name before an entity can file its articles of incorporation, amendments to articles of incorporation, or certificates of authority. See Utah Code Ann. 7-1-701(10) (1998). Note the exceptions that apply to the use of the restricted words found in section 7-1-701 of the Utah Code Annotated.

Use the "Exact Name" option to search through the existing registered business names. Be aware that although a name may appear to be available, this may not be the case. An entity may have registered under a name and subsequently been dissolved. In such a case, the entity has a two-year period in which to apply for reinstatement. Consequently, the name it registered under is reserved for the entity during that two-year period. In order to check a requested name against these names review the renewal/status guideline for availability. When entering names, capitalize the first letter of each word, as appropriate. If the requested name begins with initials, use the following list of suggestions for entering the initials, or use the "Alphabetic" search option. In order to do an "Alphabetic" search, press ENTER at the "Exact Name" option and enter the initials or name under "Alphabetic." This will return names that contain the requested initials.

A B
A.B.
A. B.
A&B
A & B
A.&B.
A. & B.
A AND B
A. AND B.
A-B
A - B
A.-B
A. - B.
A/B
A / B
A./B.
A. / B.