Hiya! I’m an engineer on @stripe @atlas. A quick deep dive on the surprisingly complex (and interesting!?) minutiae of company names.

Here's a behind the scenes of how we help founders *not* know all nerdy details of the State of Delaware and the IRS... 🧵

First up, suffixes — that thing at the end of the name (the `, Inc` in Monsters, Inc.).

Did you know there are many allowable suffixes? You can append `Club`, `Society`, `Association`, or (my fav) `Syndicate`. It's right there in Title 8 § 102 (a)(1) of the Delaware statute.

Next, symbols! Turns out Delaware is cool with `@`, but the IRS isn't. We learned this when a founder incorporated the obviously amazing “@_@, Inc.”.

(In this case, we worked directly with the IRS to register them as "At Underscore At, Inc." and "@_@, Inc." at the state level.)

At scale, abstracting over *multiple* gov't systems is actually non-deterministic, so we monitor regex logic via approval rates.

Some incorporation intersection set theory: [Delaware ∩ IRS] of allowable symbols = [0-9, A-Z (upper and lower), space, ampersand, dash, apostrophe]

Then there's the rules of IRS | 21.7.13.2.2.1 | Employer Identification Numbers (EINs) | Treas. Reg. § 301.6109-1(d)(2) | Frivolous/Suspicious Forms SS-4.

Basically: can't be a long, nonsensical string of chars, contain profanity, or be "frivolous".

www.irs.gov/irm/part21/irm_21-007-013r

I love geeking out about stuff like this…

- A name can’t start with 0 (but can start with 1-9)
- A name can’t contain multiple suffixes (like "Cool Company, Inc.")
- My fav: want to use the word "hack"? The really nice agents at Delaware will require internal manager approval!

It's never a deep dive without a lawsuit. Company names are protected by the First Amendment.

Once a burrito restaurant, Illegal Pete's, sued the Delaware Secretary of State after their name was rejected! (They won.)

www.denverpost.com/2019/08/02/delaware-illegal-petes-name

No one should have to care about this, unless you're a nerd like me! 🤓 The @atlas automatic name checker:

- Checks if your name is available in Delaware
- Validates dozens of rules to fit multiple government formats
- Warns if your name may require additional approvals

This stuff really matters. If your company name gets blocked (or rejected!) by Delaware or the IRS, it can add weeks to your incorporation process.

Would a company by any other name smell just as sweet? We think not! Try it out at stripe.com/atlas. Bug reports welcome!