Your personal, legal name is
your first and last name.
A corporation's legal name is the one appearing on
the face of the registered, stamped state corporate, LLC or Ltd Partnership
certificate.
Thus, if your name is John Doe and you are doing business as
as a sole proprietor with the business name "Peter's Carpet Cleaning," you are
required to Apply, Register & Get a dba, DBA statement.
On the business name certificate / statement, you will be
the registrant, John Doe, doing business as the dba name "Peter's Carpet Cleaning".
If you have registered a corporation, or LLC with that name
(i.e., "Peter's Carpet Cleaning") you don't need to Apply, Register & Get a dba with the same
name (i.e., with "Peter's Carpet Cleaning" business name).
However, if you have Registered "Peter's Carpet Cleaning"
corporation, or LLC and you decide you also want to do business as a
corporation but with a different than the corporation's name.
For instance, you want to do business with the business name "Plumber 4
You," you need to Apply, Register & Get a dba under "Peter's Carpet Cleaning" corporation (in
such case, "Peter's Carpet Cleaning" corporation will be the registrant of the dba
business name "Plumber 4 You".
Why is it called a "Ficticious"
business name, assumed name or a Assumed Business Name ?
It is called a "Ficticious" name, mainly because it is not the
"legal name" of the owner.
An individual has a legal name because he or she has a birth
certificate and or a social security number.
A corporation has a legal
name because it has a corporate certificate Registered with the state as well as a
federal tax id number.
Thus, a person with a legal name, doing business as a name other
than its legal name, has to Apply, Register & Get a DBA of the name he is
doing business as...
A DBA, an assumed name or a Assumed Business Name ,
is simply a company's business name, when the business name is not the same as
the owner's name of the business.
For example, the business name of a sole proprietorship is "Joan's
Burger Queen". If the business name was
the name of the owner of the business, "Joan Doe," the first and last name
of the owner, it would not be a "Ficticious" business name.
Likewise if
the owner of the business is a corporation, as for example, IBM corporation,
doing business as the business name "Computers to Go," "Computers to Go" would
be a DBA for IBM corporation because the name is not the
corporation / owner's name (namely, the name is not " IBM corporation").
