Nevada Business Name Availability Checker
Data verified August 10, 2026 · Official database: Nevada Secretary of State
LLC filing fee
Name reservation cost
Reservation hold
Quick answer: Nevada’s business search prints its own scope above the form: it “Includes Trademarks, Trade Names, Service Marks, Reserved Names & Business Licenses.” One query covers claims that sit in a separate index in most states, reserved names included. The statute underneath is blunt in the other direction. Under NRS 86.171, distinctive lettering or a trademark does not make a name distinguishable, and a name freed by revocation, merger or termination passes to the next filer immediately.
How to check a name in Nevada
The checker above is the fast first pass. The four screens below follow the Secretary of State’s own search, which is really two searches on one page: an entity search and a marks search, run together unless you tell it otherwise. The result is a wide net and a noisy list, so the work here is filtering rather than finding. What you see is preliminary. The Secretary of State rules on the name when your Articles of Organization are examined.
Step 1: Open the Nevada Business Search
Open the Nevada Business Search. The line under the title is the most useful sentence on the page: the index “Includes Trademarks, Trade Names, Service Marks, Reserved Names & Business Licenses.” Below it sit two panels, Business Entity Search Criteria and Marks Search Criteria, and an Advanced Search Options block whose All setting runs both. Leave it on All for a name check. Narrowing to one of them is how you would miss a mark that a company never registered as an entity.
Step 2: Choose the match mode before you type
The four radios above the field are Starts With, Contains, Exact Match and All Words, and the page opens on Starts With. That default answers a narrower question than the one you are asking. Contains is the mode that surfaces a conflict buried in the middle of a longer name, which is exactly the kind of record that turns into a rejection later. Type the distinctive words into Name and leave off the ending, because NRS 86.171 treats “Limited-Liability Company,” “LLC,” “Ltd.” and their variants as designators rather than as the name.
Step 3: Read Status and Prior Name Match, not just Name
The results table has two columns most registers do not. Prior Name Match tells you the hit is a name the company used to hold rather than its current one, and Compliance Hold flags a record the state has restricted. Status is the column that decides your answer here: this capture shows Active, Merged and Permanently Revoked rows side by side, and under NRS 86.171 the merged and revoked names are already free. Type carries Nevada’s numeric codes, so a domestic LLC reads Domestic Limited-Liability Company (86) after the chapter that governs it.
Step 4: Open the record for its status and its annual report date
The detail screen pairs Entity Status with Termination Date and Compliance Hold, so a record explains its own condition rather than leaving you to infer it from a single word. Annual Report Due Date appears here too, which matters in Nevada more than in most states because the annual list and the state business license both fall due together. The Officer Information block has a View Historical Data checkbox, and Registered Agent Type distinguishes a commercial registered agent from an individual.
Nevada LLC naming rules
The rules are in NRS 86.171:
- Required ending: “Limited-Liability Company,” “Limited Liability Company,” “Limited Company” or “Limited,” or the abbreviations “Ltd.,” “L.L.C.,” “L.C.,” “LLC” or “LC.” “Company” may be shortened to “Co.”
- The comparison set: every other artificial person formed, organized, registered or qualified in Nevada, plus every reserved name.
- Styling is not distinguishing. Distinctive lettering, a mark, a trademark or a trade name does not by itself make a name distinguishable from one already on the records. A logo cannot rescue a name that reads the same.
- Released names reopen at once. A name freed by charter revocation, merger or termination passes to the next filer immediately. Nevada writes no holding period into the statute.
- Bank and trust are conditional, not banned. An LLC may use “bank” or “trust” only if it will operate as one with the approval of the Commissioner of Financial Institutions.
- Professional terms need their own clearance: “accountant” and “auditor” from the State Board of Accountancy, “engineer” from the State Board of Professional Engineers, “architect” and related design words from the State Board of Architecture, and real estate association terms from the Real Estate Division.
Reserving a name in Nevada
A reservation is $25 and holds the name for 90 days, a month shorter than the 120 days most states grant. Nevada spends its generosity on visibility instead: reserved names sit inside the public search rather than in a separate list, which is why the scope line at the top of the search page names them.
While a reservation stands, another filer can take the name only with the holder’s written and acknowledged consent. That cuts both ways. If your search turns up a reserved name rather than a company, there is no trading history to work with and no lapse to wait out beyond the 90 days, so the practical options are a written consent or a different name.
Fictitious firm names in Nevada
Nevada keeps DBAs entirely at the county level. Every filer, whether an LLC, a corporation, a partnership or a sole proprietor, files a fictitious firm name certificate with the county clerk in each county where it does business under NRS 602.010, pays that clerk’s fee, commonly around $25, and renews every five years. A business operating in three counties files three times. There is no state-level DBA filing and no newspaper publication requirement.
The consequence for name checking is a gap you have to close by hand. Because these certificates never reach the Secretary of State’s records, a fictitious firm name is outside the distinguishability screen: it cannot block your LLC name, and your LLC name cannot stop someone from filing it. The Secretary of State publishes a county clerk directory for exactly this reason, and a company trading under a name it never registered as an entity may only be visible there.
If your Nevada name is taken
- Check the Status column before you give up. Merged, terminated and permanently revoked records release their names immediately under NRS 86.171, so a match in the list is not automatically a live conflict.
- A Prior Name Match is a different question. The hit may be a name the company has already moved on from. The current name is the one the record now carries.
- A reserved name means a person, not a business. Reservations show in this same search. Behind one is a filer holding a 90-day window, and the only routes are their written, acknowledged consent or the calendar.
- Restyling will not work. Changing capitalization, adding a logo or claiming a trademark does not make a name distinguishable under the statute. The words themselves have to differ.
- The match mode may be hiding it. A clean result on Starts With and a conflict on Contains is the common failure here, and the second search is free.
If the search comes back clear, you can start your Nevada LLC with that name. Budget honestly for this one: Nevada’s opening cost is about $425, being $75 for the Articles of Organization, $150 for the Initial List of Managers or Members and $200 for the State Business License, and roughly $350 falls due every year after that. Nevada is often described as a cheap state to incorporate in. It is one of the more expensive ones to keep.
Official Nevada sources
- Nevada Business Search: entities, marks, trade names, reserved names and business licenses in one index
- NRS Chapter 86: the designator, the distinguishability test and the immediate release of terminated names in § 86.171, and the reservation in § 86.176
- NRS Chapter 602: the county fictitious firm name certificate
- Secretary of State name reservations: the $25 filing and its 90-day term
- County clerk directory: where fictitious firm names are actually filed and searched
Frequently asked questions
How do I check business name availability in Nevada?
Search the Secretary of State's Nevada Business Search. Pick a match mode at the top, type the distinctive words into the Name field and press Search. Read the Status column before you conclude anything, because the results carry revoked and merged records next to active ones. What you find is preliminary; the Secretary of State decides the name when the Articles of Organization are examined.
What does the Nevada business search actually cover?
More than companies. The search page states its own scope in a line above the form: it includes trademarks, trade names, service marks, reserved names and business licenses. That means one query tells you whether a name is held by an entity, claimed as a mark, or already reserved by someone else who has not filed yet.
How much does it cost to reserve a business name in Nevada?
The reservation is $25 and holds the name for 90 days, which is shorter than the 120 days most states allow. While it stands, another filer can take the name only with the reservation holder's written and acknowledged consent.
A Nevada company with my name was revoked. Can I use the name?
In Nevada, generally yes, and without waiting. NRS 86.171 releases the name of a company whose charter has been revoked, that has merged out of existence, or whose existence has otherwise terminated for immediate use by another filer. States such as Oklahoma hold a released name for years; Nevada does not. Confirm the record's status on the search results before you rely on it.
Do Nevada DBAs appear in the Secretary of State search?
No. A Nevada fictitious firm name is filed with the county clerk in each county where the business operates, not with the Secretary of State, and it renews every five years. Because those certificates sit outside the state's records, a fictitious firm name neither blocks an entity name nor is blocked by one, and checking it means searching each county clerk separately.