Focus on Company Naming Rules in MCA’s Latest Advisory

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), through its advisory dated March 12, 2026, has sought to address recurring deficiencies in company and LLP name reservation and change applications, aimed at ensuring broader compliance with naming requirements.

It has reiterated key principles governing name selection and change. In particular:

• proposed names must be distinctive and should not closely resemble, phonetically or otherwise, any existing or well-known company/LLP name, and must be sufficiently unique to avoid sounding similar to established entities;
• submission of an NOC will not be considered in cases of exact or similar names, and such applications are liable to be rejected;
• names must not include words or expressions that are likely to give an impression of association with the Central Government, State Government, or any local authority or statutory body; further, use of certain words (such as “Bank”, “Insurance”, “Company Secretaries”, “Chartered Accountants”, etc.) requires in-principle approval/NOC from the concerned regulator or professional institute at the time of name reservation;
• before applying, applicants should check the proposed name against registered trademarks by comparing the words in the proposed name with registered trademarks and matching the business activity (NIC code) with the relevant trademark class; if a similar registered trademark exists in the same class with similar objects, the name may not be allowed, and the advisory illustrates that NOC from the trademark owner may be required in such cases;
• names identical with those of a company dissolved as a result of liquidation proceedings, a company struck off, or an LLP in liquidation or struck off cannot be used for the prescribed cooling-off periods, and the old name of an existing company cannot be used for a period of three years from the date of change of name (subject to specified exceptions); and
• even minor changes to an existing name—such as removal of a hyphen (e.g., “Indi-Tech Private Limited” to “Inditech Private Limited”)—are treated as a change of name and require the filing of Form RUN for name approval.

The advisory seeks to reduce avoidable rejections by encouraging greater diligence in complying with naming norms at both the reservation and name change stages, while also addressing certain broader incorporation-related and procedural aspects.