Kansas Business Name Search
Data verified July 18, 2026 · Official database: Kansas Secretary of State
LLC filing fee
Name reservation fee
Reservation hold non-renewable
Quick answer: Kansas business names are checked in the Business Search on the Secretary of State’s filing portal. A new LLC name must be distinguishable from every entity, series, and reserved name on the records, including names canceled or forfeited within the past year, and it needs an ending such as “LLC.” Only the Secretary of State’s review of your filing settles the question.
How to check a name in Kansas
The checker above runs a first sweep of Kansas records. The four screens below walk the Secretary of State’s own Business Search, so you can repeat each step and read the results the way the filing office does. Treat a clean result as a preliminary read; the Secretary of State decides the name at filing.
Step 1: Open the Business Search
Open the Business Search under the State of Kansas, Office of the Secretary of State banner. The form’s own caption reads: “The business name or identification number on file with the Secretary of State.” Three radio buttons set the mode: By business name, By Kansas Secretary of State Business ID, and By current resident agent name. Leave the first selected; no account or login stands between you and the records.
Step 2: Type the name without its ending
Type the distinctive words of your proposed name into the Type here field and drop the designator, so a planned “Prairie Wind Trading LLC” goes in as Prairie Wind Trading. Keep Contains, the default match mode, for the widest net, and switch to Starts With when a common word floods the list. Press the green Search button.
Step 3: Read the Status column on every match
Results land in a table with Name, Entity ID, City, State, Status, and Resident Agent columns, and a Select Business button on every row. One search surfaced four different statuses: “Active and in Good Standing,” “Dissolved,” “Withdrawn,” and “Forfeited - Failed to Timely File I/R.”
Do not skip the loose matches. The Contains search reads across spaces, which is how a query for Microsoft pulled in Insurance Micro Software, Inc., and that same looseness will surface names sitting close to yours.
Step 4: Open General Information on any close name
Select Business opens the record on its General Information tab. The page lays out Business ID, Business Name, Type, Formation Date, Jurisdiction, and Status, then the Resident Agent Name and the registered office in Kansas.
This record shows Last Reporting Year 2026 against a Next Report Due Date of 04/15/2028, Kansas’s two-year information report rhythm in plain sight, and a Forfeiture Date three months after the due date. That last date is when a company that stops filing flips to forfeited, and under K.S.A. 17-7918 the name then stays blocked for another year, so a dead record is not automatically an open name.
Kansas LLC naming rules
Kansas splits its naming law in two: K.S.A. 17-7920 says what an LLC name must contain, and K.S.A. 17-7918 says what it must clear.
- Required ending, six ways to write it: “limited liability company” or “limited company,” the abbreviation “L.L.C.” or “L.C.,” or the designation “LLC” or “LC.” The name may also carry a member’s or manager’s name and words such as “company,” “fund,” “limited,” and “trust.”
- Distinguishable on the records: the name must differ from every covered and foreign covered entity, from any non-covered entity that has filed with the office other than a general partnership, from named series of LLCs, and from every name reserved under K.S.A. 17-7923.
- A one-year memory for dead names: the records test reaches back twelve months, so a name canceled or forfeited within the previous year stays off limits. The “Forfeited” and “Dissolved” rows in the search deserve dates, not assumptions.
- No restricted-word list, with one twist: the LLC statute even lists “trust” among its permitted words. Kansas regulates conduct instead: K.S.A. 9-2011 makes engaging in the banking or trust business without the bank commissioner’s authorization a misdemeanor, and bank names are chartered outside the distinguishability rule.
- Two ways past a conflict: written consent from the holder of the existing name, filed on the Secretary of State’s prescribed form, or a certified court judgment establishing your right to the name. Kansas consent asks for no added distinguishing word, a lighter requirement than most states impose.
Reserving a name in Kansas
A Kansas reservation is $35 on Form NR and holds the name for 120 days. The form’s instructions call the hold what it is: “This is not a name registration,” a temporary claim until your formation document is ready. Reservations may not be renewed, and the form closes the workaround: a new reservation submitted before the current one expires will be rejected. Once the hold lapses, anyone can reserve the name again.
The filing is paper: print, sign, and mail with a check, money order, or credit card, or send it by fax, which the statute allows. A reservation transfers to another person by a notice naming the transferee. Before mailing, run the wording through the office’s own Name Availability check in the same eforms system.
Forming the LLC itself costs $85 online or $90 on paper for the Articles of Organization, so a reservation earns its fee only when a real gap separates your name decision from your filing date. After formation, the information report runs $53 online, due January 1 to April 15 after the tax year closes.
Trading under a different name in Kansas
Kansas is one of the few states with no trade name or DBA registry at all. The Secretary of State’s forms list says so in its own footnote: the reservation application “does not register an assumed, fictitious, trade, or DBA (doing business as) name,” and the list carries no assumed-name form. Sole proprietors do not register with the Secretary of State.
Two consequences follow. The Business Search lists entities only, so wording that comes back clean there can still be in daily use as somebody’s unregistered trade name. And the closest state-level protection is a trademark or service mark: Form TSA, $40 for a five-year term, renewable with a specimen of the mark in use. Marks sit in their own Trademark/Service Mark Search, so check it before you commit to a brand.
If your Kansas name is taken
- Change a word with substance. Distinguishability on the records will not come from punctuation, capitalization, or a different ending. Add or swap a word that changes what the name says.
- Date the dead records. The one-year block runs from the cancellation or forfeiture, so the record’s dates tell you whether the name is still held or already free.
- Ask for consent when the conflict is friendly. Kansas accepts the existing holder’s written consent on the Secretary of State’s form, with no requirement to alter your name beyond that.
If every variation comes back clear, you can start your Kansas LLC with that name while the records still read that way.
Official Kansas sources
- Kansas Business Search: the authoritative database
- K.S.A. 17-7920: name requirements for limited liability companies
- K.S.A. 17-7918: the distinguishability rule and its one-year reach
- K.S.A. 17-7923: the 120-day reservation and its transfer path
- Form NR: the $35 temporary name reservation
- Form DL: Articles of Organization fees
- Register a Business: the forms list and its no-DBA footnote
An open Kansas name is only yours once you file
Forming an LLC under your name is the only way to lock it in. Northwest handles the Kansas filing, registered-agent service, and paperwork.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check LLC name availability in Kansas?
Run the distinctive words of your proposed name through the Kansas Business Search on the Secretary of State's portal, once in "Contains" mode and again for any alternate spellings. Read the Status column on every near match, because recently forfeited names can still block you. The Secretary of State rules on the name only when your formation filing arrives.
Does a Kansas LLC name have to include "LLC"?
Yes, and Kansas accepts six endings: the phrases "limited liability company" and "limited company," the abbreviations "L.L.C." and "L.C.," and the designations "LLC" and "LC." The statute also lets the name carry the name of a member or manager, along with words such as "company," "fund," or "trust."
Can I take the name of a forfeited or dissolved Kansas company?
Not right away. K.S.A. 17-7918 keeps the name of any entity whose registration was canceled or forfeited off limits for one year after the event. A row marked "Forfeited - Failed to Timely File I/R" in the Business Search can therefore still be a conflict, so work out the forfeiture date before building plans on a lapsed name.
How much does it cost to reserve a business name in Kansas?
The filing fee is $35 on Form NR, which holds the name for 120 days, and the form states that reservations may not be renewed. The reservation can be moved to someone else by filing a notice of transfer, and the statute even allows the application to arrive by fax. When the hold lapses, anyone may reserve the same name again.
Does Kansas require a DBA or trade name registration?
No such filing exists at the state level. The Secretary of State's forms list states that the name reservation application does not register an assumed, fictitious, trade, or DBA name, and the list offers no assumed-name form at all. The nearest state-level instrument is a trademark or service mark registration, $40 for a five-year renewable term, which lives in its own search.