A Short Course in Business Name Terms

This page is designed to provide a key to unlock the legalese of business name definitions. Part of the reason various business name descriptions are so difficult to understand is that many business communities and local, state and federal agencies have independent definitions explaining similar business name concepts. The following definitions provide a crash course in commonly used business name terms.

A corporate name is obtained by registering with the secretary of state or other state agency overseeing registration of corporate names. As with a corporation, Limited Liability Companies (LLC) and Limited Partnerships (LP) also have to register their names with their state. It should be noted that registering a corporate name with the secretary of state does not guarantee that a business can use the corporate name as their trade name, as a name for their goods and/or services, or as an Internet address.

The legal name of a business depends upon the type of business that is operating. Generally, it is the official name of the entity that owns a business. In the case of a sole proprietorship the legal name is simply the full name of the owner. Generally, the legal name of the general partnership is the last names of the owners. The exception is when there is a general partnership agreement that supplies a legal name for the partnership. For limited partnerships (LP), limited liability companies (LLC) and corporations, the legal name is the name registered with the secretary of state.

A trademark or service mark is used by a business to market a product or service. The trademark can be a word, name, phrase, symbol or graphic. Trademark owners have certain legal rights to limit an entity's use of their trademark given by the Federal Trademark Act (Title 15, United States Code, Section 1051), the California Trademark Act (Business and Professions Code Section 14200), the Fictitious Business Name Act (Business and Professions Code Section 17900) and common law rights, including rights to a trade name. For further information on trademarks see the United States Patent & Trademark Office website at http://www.uspto.gov or the trademark area of Nolo's Legal Encyclopedia.

A trade name is simply the name the business uses to operate which may or may not be the same as the legal name.  The trade name is the name a business uses on its letterhead and invoices and puts in the telephone directory, on signs, and on other advertisements. For many transactions, such as establishing a credit account or applying for a loan, both the legal name and the trade name of the business will be requested.

The term business name can refer to all the names used in business, a trade name, a corporate name, a fictitious business name, a DBA (doing business as) name, as well as the names of the products and services provided by a business. 

A domain name is a series of characters registered with InterNIC, an agency which keeps track of Internet addresses or URLs (Universal Resource Locators) like incal.com. Accredited Registrars can be used to research a domain name and register it if is available for use as an URL on the Internet.

A fictitious business name or DBA (doing business as) is a trade name used by a business that is not the same as the legal name of the entity (individual, partnership, LP, LLC, or corporation) that owns the business. For example if John Doodle Doe names his sole proprietorship Wild Winged Widgets, the name of the business would be fictitious because it does not contain his personal name. Similarly, the corporation, John Doodle Doe, Inc. could own two or more businesses with fictitious names such as Wild Winged Widgets and Wondrous Woozles. The term DBA name which stands for "doing business as"  is the same as the term " fictitious business name." Fictitious business names have to be filed with the city and/or county clerk and/or recorder in the counties where you do business.