How company name approval works in India

Every proposed company name must be cleared by the Registrar of Companies (ROC), which operates under the MCA. The approval sits on top of incorporation itself — you can't register a company until MCA has approved and reserved its name. The process runs through one of two routes:

• SPICe+ Part A — the integrated route most new companies use, filed alongside the rest of the incorporation paperwork. You can propose up to two name options in order of preference.
• RUN (Reserve Unique Name) — a standalone web service for reserving a name before you're ready to file full incorporation, or for renaming an existing company. It costs ₹1,000 per application. LLPs use the equivalent RUN-LLP form.

Once approved, the name is reserved for 20 days. If you don't complete incorporation within that window (SPICe+ Part B, e-MOA, e-AOA, and the AGILE-PRO-S form for PAN/TAN/GST/EPFO/ESIC), the name lapses and you'll need to reapply — and pay the fee again.

Basic rules for selecting a company name

Before you get into the detailed legal exclusions, a proposed name has to clear three basic tests:

1. It must be unique — not identical or deceptively similar to any existing registered company, LLP, or trademark.
2. It must not be too generic — a name that merely describes an industry (e.g., "Silk Sarees Private Limited") will be rejected as a descriptive name, regardless of word order.
3. It must not use restricted terms — abbreviations, adjectives, and generic words that could be rejected outright, and the name must not suggest any association with a government body.

Beyond this, if your company's suffix indicates its structure — Private Limited, Limited, LLP — that suffix must match the actual entity type you're incorporating.

When a name is "too similar" to an existing one

This is the rule that trips up the most applicants, because MCA's definition of "too similar" is far broader than an exact-match search suggests. Under the Companies (Incorporation) Rules, a name is deemed to "resemble too nearly" an existing name if it's the same after disregarding certain variations. MCA ignores all of the following differences when comparing names:

Company-type suffixes

Words like Private, Pvt, Ltd, LLP, Company, Corporation, Group, and similar are disregarded — so "Greens Technologies" is treated as identical to "Green Technology Ltd."

Punctuation, spacing, and letter case

Singular vs. plural, and tense

Phonetic spelling variations

Common prefixes

Adding words like New, Modern, Nav, Shri, Sri, Om, Jai, or Mrs./Dr./Prof. before an existing name does not make it distinct.

Word order

Addition of a place name, or "global"/"international"

Addition or deletion of numerals

Important exception: most of these disregarded variations stop applying if you can produce a No-Objection Certificate from the existing company via a board resolution — this is how genuine group companies and franchisees register similar-sounding names legitimately.

Names that are not allowed under any circumstances

Separately from the similarity test, MCA rejects certain names outright regardless of uniqueness. A name is considered undesirable if it:

• Violates the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act, 1950
• Includes a trademark registered in the same class of goods/services without the trademark owner's consent
• Contains words offensive to any section of the public
• Implies a connection with an embassy, consulate, or foreign government
• References a national hero or a person holding (or who held) an important government position
• Contains the words "British India"
• Includes "Insurance," "Bank," "Stock Exchange," "Venture Capital," "Asset Management," "Nidhi," or "Mutual Fund" — unless the applicant declares compliance with the relevant regulator (IRDA, RBI, SEBI, etc.)
• Uses the word "State" where the company is not a government company
• Consists only of a country, state, or city name (e.g., "Germany Limited," "Haryana Limited")
• Is purely descriptive of an activity any company could perform (e.g., "Drinking Water Plant Ltd.")
• Matches the name of a company dissolved by liquidation within the last two years, or struck off within the last twenty years

A company name that includes a foreign country or city name can still be allowed if the applicant shows proof of a genuine business relationship with that country — for instance, an MoU with a company based there.

Words requiring prior Central Government approval

Under Section 4(3)(b) of the Companies Act, the following words (and equivalents in any language) cannot be used in a company name without prior Central Government approval:

If your business genuinely needs one of these words — for example, a legitimate financial services company using "Financial" or "Corporation" — you'll need to file for Central Government approval separately before (or alongside) your name application, which adds processing time. Budget for this in your incorporation timeline if any of your shortlisted names contain one of these terms.

How to check name availability on the MCA portal (2026)

MCA has moved to its V3 portal, so the check-name process looks different from older guides you may have seen. Here's the current procedure:

1. Go to mca.gov.in. A desktop browser is easier to scan results on.
2. Navigate to MCA Services → FO Services → Check Company/LLP Name. This free tool now searches both the company and LLP registers together — no login required for a basic search.
3. Enter only the distinctive keyword of your proposed name (e.g., type "Mohit" if your target name is "Mohit Chemicals Private Limited") — don't add suffixes like Private Limited or LLP, as they clutter the results.
4. Review the list of existing names for exact matches and close look-alikes, applying the "too nearly resembling" rules covered above.
5. Separately, search the Trademark Registry's public search to rule out a registered trademark conflict in your business category.
6. If the name is clear on both counts, file RUN (₹1,000, standalone) or include it in SPICe+ Part A as part of full incorporation.

Special rule for foreign company subsidiaries

If you're a foreign company setting up an Indian subsidiary, there's a helpful carve-out: you can generally use your parent company's original name as-is, with the addition of the word "India" or the name of an Indian state or city — provided that combined name is otherwise available and doesn't fall foul of the rules above. This is why you'll often see Indian subsidiaries named "[Parent Company] India Private Limited."

If you're planning this route, it's worth reading our detailed guides on registering an Indian subsidiary from the USA or how UK companies enter the Indian market, which walk through the full incorporation process end-to-end, not just the naming step.

Frequently Asked Questions