The Fictitious Business Name (FBN), otherwise known as the Doing Business As (DBA), is a way for government to connect any business name with the business's legal owner(s).

It can be a bit messy trying to figure when you need to do one, but generally speaking, if your business name includes the Last name(s) of ALL the owners AND no other owners are implied (& Associates, & sons, Group, etc.) then no FBN is required.

Similarly, Limited Liability Companies (LLC) and Corporations that operate using the exact corporate name do not need a FBN, but if they operate with any other name, then they will need a FBN.