Guidance

Choosing  a company name

Before proceeding with the redomiciliation of the register office to the Republic, you must decide upon the proposed name for your company. Alternatively, the company can opt to continue in the Republic with its current name. In any case, the name must be approved by the Registrar of Companies.

Search on the proposed name

Once you decide upon the proposed name for your company, and before submitting an application for approval of the proposed name, you are advised to conduct an online search on the company’s Register of the Registrar of Companies in order to verify that there is no other company registered with the same, or similar, name.

In order for the proposed name to be approved, it must not be too similar to that of an existing company or be misleading or undesirable. In the case where your proposed company name is similar to the name of an already existing business entity, the proposed name can be examined only if, together with your application for approval of the proposed name you also submit a relevant consent from the existing registered business entity to use the said name.

Following the submission of application for approval of the proposed name, the Registrar of Companies will carry out a search in relation to the proposed name of the company, which will not be limited only to companies registered in Cyprus. As a result of this search, the Registrar of Companies may reject a name for the purposes of protecting the reputation of an international organisation not registered in Cyprus (e.g. Coca Cola, McDonalds, etc). To this end, you are urged to conduct an online search on the existing registered trademarks, in order to determine whether a registered trademark with the same or a similar name already exists.

In addition, if the proposed contains restrictive words or expressions, the necessary consent of the competent governmental authority or other authorized organization should be obtained and attached with the application.

Limited/Ltd

Depending on the type of company that you will choose to incorporate the company’s proposed name must end:

• In the case of a private company limited by shares or by guarantee, with the word “ΛΙΜΙΤΕΔ” or “ΛΤΔ” or, where the name of the company is written with Latin characters, “LIMITED” or “LTD”;
• In the case of a public company limited by shares or by guarantee and with a share capital, with the words “ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΛΙΜΙΤΕΔ” or “ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΛΤΔ” or “ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ ΛΙΜΙΤΕΔ” or “ΔΗΜΟΣΙΑ ΕΤΑΙΡΕΙΑ ΛΤΔ” or “Δ.Ε. ΛΙΜΙΤΕΔ” or “Δ.Ε. ΛΤΔ” or, where the name of the company is written with Latin characters, with the words “PUBLIC COMPANY LIMITED” or “PUBLIC COMPANY LTD” or “PUBLIC CO. LIMITED” or “PUBLIC CO. LTD” or “PLC” or “PUBLIC LIMITED” or “PUBLIC LTD”.

Omission of the word “Limited"

A company incorporated as a non-profit company for the promotion of any public purpose, intending to distribute its surpluses or other income for the promotion of its objectives and under certain conditions, may apply to omit the word “limited” from its proposed name by submitting a letter together with the application for name approval.

Submission of name approval application

The application for approval/change of name is submitted to the Registrar of companies, online via e-filing, by hand or by post accompanied by:

• permission, consent or pre-approval by the appropriate governmental authority or appropriate body in case it is necessary for the use of words or phrases and/or due to the nature of business respectively;
• payment of a €10 fee for every proposed name. If you wish to accelerate the name approval process, an additional fee of €20 for every proposed name is required.

You are advised to refer to the main criteria of review and the most common reasons for rejection for further guidance.

The name approval results are available via e-services.

Once the name is approved and within six (6) months from that date (a period during which the approved proposed name is reserved), an application for the issuance of a temporary certificate of continuation must be submitted.

  e-name approval