A named corporation is a corporation with a registered name other than a designated number that appears in its articles. Your corporation must have an acceptable name that conforms to various statutory requirements. The most important rule is that your name cannot be identical to or lead to confusion with another entity already using another similar or identical name.
You can have an official legal name and register other trade names under which you do business.
A corporate name is usually made of the following components:
According to the example above, the name of the business would be ABC Plumbing Inc. Please find below other examples:
Distinctive
Scott (family name)
Hellio (distinctive)
Descriptive
Supplies
Renovations
Legal Ending
Inc.
Inc.
It depends on several factors, such as the nature of your business, your start-up funds, and the urgency to incorporate your business. If your business includes a brand that you want to promote and market, having a named corporation is the best option because the legal name of your corporation will carry the brand and provide more credibility to your business. Please note that you can also register a trademark for your brand, which would provide heightened name protection, regardless of the legal name of your corporation. There are costs related to name search and name reservation. If your name fulfills all the legal requirements, your name should be accepted.
On the other hand, having a numbered corporation avoids the delays and expenses related to name search and name reservation. It is a good option if the name of your business is not that important for your operations, or if you need to incorporate it as fast as possible.
To register a federal corporation with a designated name, a corporate name search report is required by Corporations Canada. NUANS is a Canadian database that contains the list of all business names along with trademarks that are already in use. The NUANS report provides you a list of all business names and trademarks which are similar to the name you wish to use. This helps you (and Corporations Canada when you submit the name) determine if your name is distinctive from other business names.
A NUANS search is for one name only and it is valid for 90 days. To avoid costs associated with doing repetitive NUANS searches, it is highly recommended to do a preliminary search. This enables you to search up to 3 business names in the NUANS database and eliminate proposed names with exact matches before you pay for a full NUANS report.
Please note that obtaining a NUANS report does not mean that your name is pre-approved or approved by Corporations Canada. The only way to ensure that that your proposed name is available when you incorporate is to obtain a name pre-approval (free) from Corporations Canada. For this pre-approval, you will need to provide a NUANS report.
To register a Quebec corporation with a designated name, or change the name of an existing Quebec corporation, you can request at the Registre des entreprises du Québec (“REQ”) for the reservation of your proposed name. Name reservation is optional, but it prevents the REQ from registering such name for another business. The reservation is valid for 90 days.
Please note that reserving a name does not prevent another business from registering the same name as a trade name (other name used in Quebec). Also, although the name reservation is a prevalidation process, the REQ can subsequently reject the name based on the information in the incorporation application. Therefore, it is important to specify the nature and origin of the proposed name in the name reservation application and give a summary description of the business’s activities.
To change the legal name of your corporation, you need to amend its articles of incorporation. You can then either request a designated number or choose a different name. There is a government fee for the amendment of your articles. You will then be issued articles of amendment detailing the name change.
The name change also has to be recorded internally. As such, at least 2/3 of the shareholders of the corporation need to approve the name change by special resolution signed by such shareholders. By that resolution, the shareholders authorize a director or an officer of the corporation to sign the articles of amendment.
Contact us if you wish to change your corporation’s name.
