How to file a DBA in Florida

Last reviewed October 5, 2026 against official Florida Division of Corporations sources.

Before you start

Florida calls a DBA a fictitious name. Registration is handled by the Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, which runs the Sunbiz website. The process is the same whether the owner is a person or a company. The one detail people most often get wrong is the order: the newspaper notice has to run before you file, because the application asks you to certify that it already has.

Step 1: Confirm you need a fictitious name

Florida law covers any name you transact business under other than your legal name. A sole proprietor's legal name is their own given name, and a company's legal name is the exact name on file with the state. You don't need to register if you're a company in good standing using only that exact name, a Florida-licensed attorney practicing law, or a professional licensed by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation or the Department of Health whose board doesn't require it.

Step 2: Choose the name and search it

Look the name up in the fictitious name records on Sunbiz, and check corporation and LLC names too. Florida will register a name even if someone else already has it, so the search is how you avoid confusion and possible infringement claims. Don't include an entity ending such as LLC, Inc., Corp. or Company unless the owner is that type of entity. Our Florida DBA search guide walks through it.

Step 3: Gather the owner details

• The exact fictitious name
• The business mailing address and the Florida county of the principal place of business
• For individual owners: full legal name and address of each
• For an owning entity: its legal name, address and Florida document number (and FEI/EIN, if you have one)

Step 4: Publish the newspaper notice

Advertise the fictitious name at least once in a newspaper, as defined in Chapter 50 of the Florida Statutes, in the county where the principal place of business is located. Call the legal notices department of a newspaper in your county; they'll quote the price and the run date. You don't send proof to the state, but keep the newspaper's proof of publication. More detail is in our newspaper requirement guide.

Step 5: File the registration and pay $50

File the Application for Registration of Fictitious Name with the Division of Corporations. Online filing at Sunbiz takes a card payment; the paper form can be mailed with a check or money order. When you sign, you certify that the name has been advertised. The $50 fee is a non-refundable processing fee. Optional add-ons are a certificate of status ($10) and a certified copy ($30).

Step 6: Keep your acknowledgment and calendar the renewal

For online filings, the state emails an acknowledgment with the name, registration number and date. Keep it: banks often ask for it, and your city or county asks for it before issuing a business tax receipt. The registration expires December 31 of the fifth year and can be renewed between July 1 and December 31 of that year. See Florida DBA renewal.

What happens if you don't register

Doing business under an unregistered fictitious name is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida, and under section 865.09 a business that hasn't complied can't bring a lawsuit in a Florida court until it registers.

Common questions

Related: Newspaper requirement, Cost, Name search