What names to avoid for an LLC

Last updated August 29, 2026.

Names get refused for two reasons: the word is crowded, or the word is restricted. The first is a numbers problem you can measure. The second is a rule you can look up. Most rejected filings are the first kind.

The crowded words, measured

Counted across the 4,273,719 New York records we hold, these words already appear in this many registered names:

ELITE — 7,276 registered names
LEGACY — 4,940 registered names
PREMIER — 3,816 registered names
APEX — 2,097 registered names
SUMMIT — 1,967 registered names
PIONEER — 787 registered names

None of these is unusable, and none is banned. What the numbers mean is that the word is doing nothing to distinguish you. If your name is Elite Contracting and there are already seven thousand names containing Elite, the whole burden of distinguishability falls on Contracting, which is not a promising place to put it.

Restricted words, which are a different problem

These are refused unless a regulator has signed off first, and the specific list varies by state:

Bank, banc, banking, trust, credit union. Consent from the state banking regulator.
Insurance, assurance, underwriter. Consent from the insurance regulator.
University, college, academy. Consent from the state education authority in many states.
Engineer, architect, attorney, doctor and other licensed professions. Usually restricted to entities whose owners hold the licence.
Federal, State, Municipal, Commission, Agency. Commonly barred outright for implying government status.

Changes that do not make a name available

Adding or changing the designator. LLC, L.L.C., Inc, Corp and Company are ignored when states compare names.
Punctuation. Commas, ampersands, apostrophes and hyphens are usually disregarded.
Singular and plural. Treated as the same in most states.
The word The. Also usually ignored, which catches people out — a register may hold the name with a leading The when you searched without it, or the reverse.
Numerals against words. 5 and Five are frequently treated as identical.

What actually works

Distinctiveness comes from the part of the name nobody else would have chosen. Invented words, unexpected pairings and specific references survive both the state test and, later, a trademark examination. Descriptive words do neither well: they are crowded on the register and weak as marks.

How crowded each register already is

Crowding is not uniform. A name filed against 300,000 new applications a year faces a different test from one filed in a state registering a tenth of that.

New business applications by jurisdiction, Census Business Formation Statistics via FRED
Jurisdiction	New applications, 12 months	Per business day	Year on year
Florida	676,282	2,684	7.0%
California	569,091	2,258	5.7%
Texas	565,835	2,245	14.9%
New York	308,783	1,225	5.4%
Georgia	264,226	1,049	9.6%
Illinois	193,043	766	11.1%
North Carolina	192,224	763	18.9%
Ohio	175,451	696	20.8%
New Jersey	166,746	662	7.4%
Pennsylvania	166,079	659	13.5%
Michigan	158,748	630	16.8%
Colorado	152,958	607	13.8%
Virginia	145,707	578	15.7%
Arizona	142,815	567	15.1%
Washington	118,087	469	-16.4%
Tennessee	109,603	435	20.4%
Missouri	109,216	433	26.4%
Maryland	106,498	423	11.6%
South Carolina	98,221	390	13.3%
Indiana	93,390	371	3.8%
Wyoming	82,405	327	20.5%
Massachusetts	81,918	325	7.4%
Utah	78,813	313	16.8%
Louisiana	78,123	310	16.6%
Wisconsin	75,929	301	22.7%
Minnesota	74,618	296	9.1%
Alabama	74,049	294	21.1%
Kentucky	70,804	281	31.9%
Nevada	66,791	265	5.1%
Oklahoma	65,447	260	19.6%
Oregon	62,277	247	-4.8%
Delaware	60,232	239	-0.2%
Mississippi	55,674	221	19.6%
Connecticut	51,974	206	9.3%
New Mexico	42,983	171	20.0%
Arkansas	41,977	167	14.5%
Kansas	39,831	158	21.6%
Iowa	36,236	144	10.3%
Idaho	34,681	138	7.7%
Montana	30,965	123	10.8%
Nebraska	23,625	94	12.9%
Hawaii	19,017	75	1.9%
New Hampshire	18,157	72	13.2%
West Virginia	17,552	70	16.3%
District of Columbia	15,219	60	5.7%
Maine	14,359	57	-1.6%
South Dakota	12,672	50	8.2%
Rhode Island	12,082	48	6.8%
Alaska	10,836	43	10.6%
North Dakota	9,425	37	11.7%
Vermont	7,877	31	6.0%

You can check a name against all 50 states and the District of Columbia from the search on our home page. Every result links back to the state office that holds the record.

Sources reviewed

The sources below were retrieved and confirmed in August 2026. Filing requirements and fees change with legislative sessions and agency rulemaking; check the state’s own page before acting on anything here. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.

EntityFinder’s own copies of the state business registers, refreshed nightly from each state’s published open data.
United States Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics, retrieved via FRED.

The same question, and the registers it applies to: