How to Name Your Illinois Business
Our TRUiC Illinois Business Name Generator can help you find an unique name for your small business. It uses AI technology to help give you the best results for your local area and industry.
Naming your Illinois business is the most important step for starting an Illinois business. How you decide to brand your business plays a critical role in the success it will have.
Here are the 3 steps to naming your Illinois business:
- Step 1: Optimize Your Illinois Business Name for SEO
- Step 2: Follow the Illinois Business Naming Rules
- Step 3: Form Your Illinois Business
Step 1: Optimize Your Illinois Business Name for SEO
To generate a great business name for your Illinois business, consider doing the following:
- Select your industry
- Add a city name to the search field above
Select Your Industry
Choosing your business industry will help our AI tool generate much better names. Also, having the industry keyword in your name will help customers easily find your business.
For example, if you’re selling auto repair services, include the industry keyword “auto repair” in your Illinois business name; if you’re a law firm, include the keyword “legal.” Doing this will greatly help with local search engine optimization (SEO).
Selecting Your City or County
Lots of customers will find you by searching Google, and adding a city to your business name will help users easily find your company.
Examples of Local Illinois Business Names:
Step 2: Follow the Illinois Business Naming Rules
When naming businesses, you must follow the naming guidelines for Illinois, which depend on the type of business structure you have.
Illinois Naming Rules for Limited Liability Companies (LLCs):
- Your name must include the phrase “limited liability company” or one of its abbreviations (e.g., LLC or L.L.C.).
- Your name cannot include words that could confuse your LLC with a government agency (FBI, Treasury, State Department, etc.).
- Restricted words (e.g. Bank, Attorney, University, etc.) may require additional paperwork and a licensed individual, such as a doctor or lawyer, to be part of your LLC.
- Your name must be distinguishable from any other Illinois limited liability company, corporation, limited liability partnership, or limited partnership.
For a complete list of Illinois LLC naming guidelines, you can read the Illinois naming guidelines.
Illinois Naming Rules for Corporations:
- Your name must contain the word “corporation,” “company,” “incorporated,” “limited” or an abbreviation of one of these terms.
- Your name must be distinguishable from any existing business in your state. This includes reserved names. We will help with this step in the search for your business name section below.
- Your name cannot include any words that indicate the corporation is in the business of banking, insurance, or corporate fiduciary without authorization from the state Commissioner of Banks and Real Estate.
- The name must contain the word "trust" if it is organized to accept and execute trusts, must contain the word "pawners" if it is organized as a pawners' society, and must contain the word "cooperative" if it is organized as a cooperative association for pecuniary profit.
- Your name cannot include words that could confuse your LLC with a government agency (FBI, Treasury, State Department, etc.).
- Your name must be the name under which your corporation conducts business unless you register for an assumed name.
You can also read the Illinois state statute that covers corporation naming guidelines for more information.
Once you have a name, you can use the Illinois corporation/LLC search on the state’s Secretary of State website to see if your desired name is available.
Step 3: Form Your Illinois Business
Here are links to help you form your business.
If you are still unsure which business formation structure will work best for you and your small business, check out our Choosing a Business Structure guide for more detailed information.
If you would like a service provider to form your business for you, see our best Illinois business formation services.
Our Other Business Name Generators
We have multiple business name generators. If you want a business name generator that is good for SEO, LLCs, or domains, check out our guides below:
If you're searching for a specific business name generator by industry, check out our guides below:
After You Have a Name for Your Illinois Business:
- Get a free logo using our Logo Generator.
- Use our How to Build a Website guide for your new Illinois small business.
