Name Availability Guidelines
Laws governing business entities generally require that the business’s name be unique from the names of other entities doing business in the state. States typically employ one of the following legal standards to determine if a name is available for use: “distinguishable upon the record” or “deceptively similar.” Kansas uses the standard of “distinguishable upon the record”, which requires that the business’s name be distinguishable from other business names already on file with the Secretary of State. This standard means that even though the proposed name may look or sound similar, a small difference in spelling, or the addition of one extra letter or word, is enough to allow the name.
The Kansas Secretary of State uses the following guidelines to determine if a name is available:
1. The plural form of a word is distinguishable from the singular word. Example: “Cat” and “Cats”
2. Numbers are distinguishable from words representing the number. Example: “10” and “ten"
3. The following words, or abbreviations thereof, are eliminated from the name prior to searching for availability, no matter where the words occur in the name: