Minnesota Business Name Search
Data verified July 26, 2026 · Official database: Minnesota Secretary of State
LLC filing fee
Name reservation fee
Reservation hold
Quick answer: Minnesota is one of the few states where a name that is already taken can still become yours without anyone’s permission. § 322C.0108 lets you file your articles with an affidavit instead of a consent letter when the conflicting record has sat on file for three years without filing anything, provided you have sent it notice by certified mail. Which makes the search worth running properly first, because the Secretary of State’s search has a switch called Include Prior Names that decides whether you ever see part of what the state compares against.
How to check a name in Minnesota
The checker above is the fast first pass. The four screens below follow the Secretary of State’s business filings search, where every Minnesota entity, assumed name and reservation lives. The portal is unusually direct about how to use it: it prints its own advice above the results and gives you three switches that change what comes back. What you find is preliminary. The Secretary of State decides the name when your articles of organization are filed.
Step 1: Open the search and read the three switches
Open Search Business Filings. The tabs offer Business Name or File Number, and under the box sit the three controls that decide your answer: Search Scope (Begins With or Contains), Filing Status (Active or Inactive) and Include Prior Names (Exclude or Include). The panel also prints the state’s own advice: “For best results, type only a portion of the business name. You may change the search criteria with the options above.”
Step 2: Type a portion of the name, then widen every switch
Enter the distinctive part of the name and leave “LLC” off, since § 322C.0108 requires the ending on every LLC name and it does no work in the comparison. Take the state’s advice about typing only a portion literally: a short fragment on Contains finds far more than a full name on Begins With. Then look at Inactive filings as well, and switch Include Prior Names to Include. A former name is exactly the kind of record that resurfaces at filing time.
Step 3: Read Name Type on every result
Each result gives Business Status, Business Type and Name Type, with a Details link and a Print button, plus a “How is search information displayed?” button in the header if you want the state’s explanation. Name Type is the field to read: this record says Minnesota Business Name, which marks it as an entity’s own name rather than an assumed name or a former one. Business Type carries the entity form and whether it is foreign, here Business Corporation (Foreign), and Minnesota compares LLC names against corporations and partnerships alike.
Step 4: Open Details for the renewal date and the two histories
Business Record Details repeats the name under its Name Type heading and adds Business Type, File Number, Filing Date, Home Jurisdiction, Status as a compound reading such as Active / In Good Standing, and an MN Statute number naming the chapter the record is filed under, 303 here for a foreign business corporation. Renewal Due Date is a real date, 12/31/2026 on this record, because every Minnesota business renews by the end of the calendar year. The tabs at the foot are Filing History and Renewal History, which is how you check whether a company has filed anything at all.
Minnesota LLC naming rules
The rules are in Minn. Stat. § 322C.0108:
- Required ending: the words “limited liability company” or the abbreviation “LLC.” A professional firm under chapter 319B follows § 319B.05 instead.
- English only: the name must be in English, or in another language expressed in English letters and characters.
- Barred words: “corporation” and “incorporated,” and abbreviations of either. Neither may a name indicate a purpose the company is not organized for, which is how banking, insurance and trust services stay out of names without a separate forbidden-word list.
- A wide comparison: the name must be distinguishable on the Secretary of State’s records from every domestic and foreign LLC, LLP, corporation and limited partnership on file here, profit or nonprofit, and from every name reserved or registered under the related chapters, including assumed names under §§ 333.001 to 333.54.
- Three ways past a conflict, all filed with the articles: the other holder’s written consent; a certified copy of a final decree of a Minnesota court establishing your prior right; or your own affidavit. The affidavit route requires that the other record has been on file, authorized or registered here for at least three years, that it has filed nothing with the Secretary of State in those three years, and that you have mailed it written notice by certified mail, return receipt requested.
Reserving a name in Minnesota
A reservation gives the applicant the exclusive use of the name for one year, and it can be transferred to someone else by signed notice. The fee depends on the channel: $55 online or in person, $35 by mail. The Secretary of State also renews reservations for further twelve-month periods at the same fee.
That combination is rare. Most states hold a name once and let it lapse, and several charge more for a shorter window: Georgia holds 30 days for $35. A Minnesota hold runs a full year and can be extended, which makes it the right tool for a project that is real but slow, and the wrong one to buy out of habit when the articles cost $155 and settle the question permanently.
Assumed names in Minnesota
Minnesota keeps assumed names at the state level, with the Secretary of State rather than a county, but it holds on to two requirements most state-level systems dropped. The certificate costs $50 online or in person and $30 by mail, and after filing it must be published in a qualified newspaper in the county of the principal or registered office, for two successive issues (§ 333.01). It also has to be renewed each calendar year, so the sticker price understates the real cost.
Two limits matter before you pick one. The assumed name may not contain entity words such as corporation, incorporated, limited or limited liability company, unless the filer would be entitled to use them anyway. And subdivision 2 bars using an assumed name to misrepresent where the business is located. Filing grants no exclusive right, but it does put the name into the records the Secretary of State screens, so an active certificate can block a later filing.
If your Minnesota name is taken
- Check how long the other record has been asleep. The three-year affidavit is the only self-help route in this guide: on file three years, nothing filed in that period, notice sent by certified mail.
- All three routes are filed with the articles. There is no advance approval to collect, so the paperwork goes in with the organization documents.
- Changing the ending achieves nothing and there is little room to try: an LLC name must carry “limited liability company” or “LLC” and may not carry “corporation” or “incorporated.”
- Widen the switches before you conclude anything. A search on Begins With, Active only, prior names excluded is the narrowest view the portal offers, and every step you widen brings in records the state itself compares against.
- A close name may be an assumed name. Those sit in the same screen under §§ 333.001 to 333.54, and they carry a yearly renewal, so one that lapses stops blocking.
If the record looks clear, you can start your Minnesota LLC with that name. The unusual part of Minnesota’s arithmetic comes afterwards: filing is $155, and the annual renewal costs nothing for a company in good standing, but it is due every December 31 and it is not optional. The Renewal Due Date on every record is the state showing you exactly how a name comes back onto the market.
Official Minnesota sources
- Search Business Filings: the Secretary of State’s entity, assumed name and reservation records
- Minn. Stat. § 322C.0108: the LLC name requirements, the distinguishability test and the three exceptions
- Minn. Stat. § 322C.0109: the one-year reservation and its transfer
- Minn. Stat. § 333.01: certificates of assumed name and the two-issue publication rule
- Business filing and certification fee schedule: the channel-split fees for filings, reservations and assumed names
An open Minnesota name is only yours once you file
Forming an LLC under your name is the only way to lock it in. Northwest handles the Minnesota filing, registered-agent service, and paperwork.
Frequently asked questions
How do I check business name availability in Minnesota?
Search the Secretary of State's business filings search and follow the state's own instruction printed above the results: for best results, type only a portion of the business name. Three switches sit under the search box and change what comes back. Set Search Scope to Contains, look at Inactive filings as well as Active ones, and set Include Prior Names to Include, because former names are part of what the Secretary of State compares against.
Can I use a Minnesota name that is already taken?
Sometimes, and Minnesota is unusual in letting you do it without the other party's agreement. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0108 accepts three documents filed with your articles of organization: the other holder's written consent, a certified copy of a final court decree establishing your prior right, or your own affidavit that the conflicting record has been on file for at least three years, has filed nothing with the Secretary of State in those three years, and has been sent written notice by certified mail.
How much does it cost to reserve a business name in Minnesota?
The fee depends on how you file: $55 online or in person, $35 by mail. The reservation holds the name for twelve months and can be renewed for further twelve-month periods at the same fee. That is one of the longest holds in the country, and unlike most states it can be extended rather than expiring for good.
Does a Minnesota assumed name have to be published in a newspaper?
Yes. Minn. Stat. § 333.01 requires the certificate of assumed name to be published, after it is filed with the Secretary of State, in a qualified newspaper in the county of the principal or registered office, for two successive issues. The filing itself is $50 online or in person and $30 by mail, and it must be renewed each calendar year.
Why does the Minnesota record show an MN Statute number?
Every Minnesota business record names the chapter it is filed under. A foreign business corporation shows 303, a domestic LLC shows 322C. It tells you which set of rules governs that record, which matters when you are working out whether a close name belongs to an entity type that competes with yours for the same register.