Mississippi Secretary of State business search — LLC name check, trademark & domain lookup
Mississippi keeps things simple: $50 to form an LLC, no fee on the annual report, and a 180-day name reservation. The public search sits behind a bot-detection layer that turns away most automated tools, so a checker that quietly reports 'no matches' for Mississippi may not have searched it at all — ours confirms the search actually ran.
Is it taken in Mississippi? — Enter the name exactly as you'd file it; the Mississippi registry, USPTO and domain registrars are checked together.
Check this name →How to check a business name in Mississippi
- Check the name as you'd file it. With the designator (LLC) attached — Mississippi compares the whole string.
- Verify at the source. The official Mississippi Secretary of State search is the record that counts; registrations change daily.
- Don't stop at the state line. A clear Mississippi result says nothing about federal trademarks or the domain; the checker covers both in the same run.
Mississippi naming rules: what the Mississippi Secretary of State will and won't accept
Every Mississippi filing is screened for a single thing before anything else: the name must be distinguishable upon the records of the Secretary of State. Swapping 'Inc.' for 'LLC', adding 'The', or changing a comma does not make a name distinguishable here. An LLC name must end in LLC, L.L.C. and Limited Liability Company; a corporation uses Corporation, Corp., Incorporated and Inc., among others.
A few words are gated. In Mississippi that list includes Bank, Trust, Insurance, Engineer and Cooperative — using one implies a regulated activity and the filing will be held until the relevant regulator consents.
On cost: forming an LLC costs $50, a corporation $50 and a name reservation is $25 and holds the name for 180 days. Online filings are immediate to 1 business day.
The ongoing obligation: Annual report, no fee for domestic LLCs ($25 for corporations), due April 15. Skip it and the state eventually dissolves the entity, releasing the name back into the pool.
Per the Mississippi Secretary of State, (601) 359-1633 — official website (fee schedule). Fees change; confirm before filing.
How busy is Mississippi right now?
In the year to August 2026, Mississippi recorded 62,713 new business applications — +33.0% on the year before, the 32nd-highest total of any state and 21.3 per 1,000 residents (ranked 9th per person). July was the busiest month with 7,667 applications, and Mississippi accounts for 1.0% of all U.S. filings.
Each application is a competitor for the same short, natural-sounding names, so the more active the state, the less a week-old search result is worth.
Where America starts businesses — all 50 states ranked →
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics (monthly, not seasonally adjusted). 2019 comparison: 31,375 applications in calendar 2019.
How Mississippi decides whether a name is taken
Three things the Mississippi Secretary of State looks at, and one it doesn't:
- Status. Only entities in an active status hold their names. Dissolved, revoked and withdrawn registrations release the name — with the caveat that a very recent lapse can still be reinstated, which our result notes when it applies.
- Distinguishability. Your name must differ from every active Mississippi name by more than punctuation, spacing, capitalisation or the entity designator. Two names that read the same aloud are usually treated as the same name.
- Designator. The recorded name of an LLC ends in an LLC designator and a corporation's in Inc., Corp. or an accepted equivalent; leave it off and the filing is returned.
- Not trademarks. The registry never checks the USPTO. A name can be free in Mississippi and still infringe a federal mark, so run both — the checker on this page does.
About the Mississippi Secretary of State
The Mississippi Secretary of State maintains Mississippi's registry of corporations, LLCs, and other registered entities — it is the system of record for Mississippi business names. Useful official resources:
- Official Mississippi business entity search — the state's own lookup.
- Mississippi Secretary of State — official website — filings, forms, fees, and contact details.
Using the official Mississippi search
- Search here first. The checker above covers the Mississippi registry plus federal trademarks and domains in one pass — most dead-end names are eliminated in seconds.
- Open the official Mississippi entity search and look up your shortlisted name exactly as you plan to file it, including the entity suffix.
- Review matching records — check each match's status (active registrations block a name; dissolved ones usually don't) and how close the spelling is to yours.
- File or reserve promptly. Availability is first-come-first-served; a name that's clear today can be registered by someone else tomorrow.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to register a business name in Mississippi?
- The name itself is free to search. Filing the entity is what costs money: $50 for an LLC and $50 for a corporation, then annual report, no fee for domestic llcs ($25 for corporations), due april 15.
- Are there words I can't use in a Mississippi business name?
- Words that imply a regulated business need consent first. In Mississippi that includes Bank, Trust, Insurance, Engineer and Cooperative. Names that suggest a government agency are refused outright.
- How many new businesses start in Mississippi each year?
- The Census Bureau counted 62,713 business applications in the twelve months to August 2026, +33.0% on the year before. Not every application becomes a registered entity, but each one is a name someone intends to use.
- Does a Mississippi registration protect my name in other states?
- No. It protects the name inside Mississippi's registry only. Nationwide protection comes from a federal trademark, which is why the checker runs the USPTO search alongside the Mississippi lookup.
- What does a Mississippi LLC name have to end with?
- One of the state's accepted designators — LLC, L.L.C. and Limited Liability Company. The checker searches the name with and without the suffix, because the suffix alone never makes a name distinguishable.
- Can I reserve a business name in Mississippi before I file?
- Yes. The Mississippi Secretary of State charges $25 to reserve a name for 180 days. A reserved name shows as taken to everyone else's search.
Still choosing a name? Try the Mississippi business name generator — every idea checked against the same registry.
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