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Company Formation FAQ - Company Name Restrictions

The Companies Act 2006 retains the existing prohibition of names: -

That are offensive or where the use of the name would involve an offence;
That suggest a connection with any part of Government;
That include sensitive words and expressions (as listed in Regulations – the existing Regulations will be replaced from 1/10/09);
That are the same as a name that has already been registered. (The Company and Business Names (Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations 2009 (SI 2009/1085) provide rules for determining whether two names will be considered as the same.)

Furthermore there are a prohibition on names that suggest a connection to public authorities specified in regulations. These controls are in addition to the requirement that generally a company's name must end in "public limited company" or "plc" or "limited" or "ltd" or the Welsh equivalents.