File a Harris County DBA With the County Clerk

A DBA, short for 'doing business as,' is the public record that connects a business name to the actual person or company behind it. If you are a sole proprietor or a partnership operating under anything other than your own legal name, this is the filing that puts your name on the books. The Harris County Clerk takes assumed name filings at its locations or by mail.

You set the clock yourself: an assumed name can run anywhere from one year up to ten from the day you register it. When the term runs out and you are still in business, you re-file.

One boundary to keep straight. The Clerk files the name; it does not create your business. If you are forming an LLC or a corporation, that paperwork, and the entity name itself, goes to the Texas Secretary of State, not the Clerk. A DBA only covers the name a sole proprietor or partnership trades under. For that simpler local case, the Clerk's assumed name page has the form.