Contra Costa County
Fictitious Business Name Search Instructions
Unlike a person's name which usually has normal alphabetic spelling, fictitious business names are very creative in the use of numbers, special characters, and spaces, which makes alphabetical searches by computer somewhat of a challenge.
Business and owner names are alphabetized using each character of the name ---each space, special character,number, and letter.
Spaces appear first in order, letters are last.
(e.g, MAC DONALD will be listed with all the MACs that have a space.
MACDONALD will be listed in a second group with the MACs that do not have a space.
The space is alphabetized.) Also, Names cannot be searched using "key words" in this index.
When seaching for business and owner names, search in various ways, such as:
Type just the first letters of the name, and then scroll through the list. (For MacDonald, type MAC only then scroll.)
Insert and delete spaces (AB COMPANY and A B COMPANY),
Insert and delete special characters---comma, apostrophe, ampersand, plus, dollar sign, etc. (JOHNS PLUMBING and JOHN'S PLUMBING)
Insert and delete extra words (A, An, The, etc--CHIEF and THE CHIEF)
Split and combine words (ADVANTAGE and AD VANTAGE)
Search using variations in spelling, numbers or special characters in place of words, similar words, abbriviated words, etc (EXPRESS and XPRESS, SMITH and SMYTHE, PLUS SERVICES and + SERVICES, ONE STOP and 1 Stop, CA and CAL and CALIF and CALIFORNIA)