How to Name Your Virginia Business
Our TRUiC Virginia 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 Virginia business is the most important step for starting a Virginia 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 Virginia business:
- Step 1: Optimize Your Virginia Business Name for SEO
- Step 2: Follow the Virginia Business Naming Rules
- Step 3: Form Your Virginia Business
Step 1: Optimize Your Virginia Business Name for SEO
To generate a great business name for your Virginia 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 insurance services, include the industry keyword “insurance” in your Virginia business name; if you’re a private health care firm, include the keyword “health care.” 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 Virginia Business Names:
Step 2: Follow the Virginia Business Naming Rules
When naming businesses, you must follow the naming guidelines for Virginia, which depend on the type of business structure you have.
Virginia 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 (e.g., 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 Virginia limited liability company, corporation, or limited partnership.
For a complete list of naming rules in Virginia, you can read the State Corporation Commission guidelines.
Virginia Naming Rules for Corporations:
- Your name must contain the word “corporation,” “company,” “incorporated,” “limited,” or an abbreviation of one of these terms.
- Your name cannot include any word, abbreviation, or combination of characters that states or implies the corporation is an LLC or a limited partnership.
- Your name cannot falsely imply that the corporation conducts business as a bank, trust company, insurance company, or public service company, such as a railroad, telephone company, utility, or water or sewer company.
- Your name must be distinguishable from any existing business in the state. This includes Virginia reserved names. We will help with this step in the search for your business name section below.
- Your name cannot include the words “bank” or “trust” unless the LLC will be engaged in the banking or trust company business, or it is clear from the context of the remaining words that it will not be engaged in such business.
- Your name cannot include the words “engineer,” “architecture,” or “land surveying,” or any variation of those words unless the LLC will be lawfully engaged in those services or it is clear from the context of the remaining words that it will not conduct such business.
- The words “United States,” “national,” “Federal”, and “reserve” may not be included in the name of a business entity that is engaged in the banking, loan, building and loan, brokerage, factorage, insurance, indemnity, savings, or trust business.
You can read the Virginia state statutes about corporation naming guidelines to learn more. Additionally, common naming questions are addressed on the Virginia State Corporation Commission website.
Once you have a name, you can use the Virginia Business Entity Search and the Name Check Availability to see if your desired name is available.
Step 3: Form Your Virginia 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 Virginia 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 Virginia Business:
- Get a free logo using our Logo Generator.
- Use our How to Build a Website guide for your new Virginia small business.
