File an Assumed Name With the County Clerk

Say you want to hang a shingle that reads something other than your own legal name (a DBA, an assumed name) and you never formed an LLC or a corporation. That name goes on file with the Guadalupe County Clerk, on the assumed-name certificate for an unincorporated business or profession. That's the form, and that's the office.

Once it's stamped in, the certificate holds for up to ten years, and it becomes a permanent slice of the public record. There's no quiet edit later. If anything changes, whether it's you, your address, or the name itself, you don't amend the old one. You file a brand-new certificate on top of it.

Here's where folks get tangled up: filing doesn't bless the name. The Clerk isn't checking whether somebody three towns over already paints it on their trucks, whether it's clever, or whether it's even available. It's a public-record step, full stop. Run your own search, including the Secretary of State's records, a plain web look, and the names already painted around town, before you spend a dime on signs or vehicle lettering you might have to redo.