Choosing a Suitable Business Name
Before registration of a company, you will need to apply and reserve the proposed business name through the ACRA portal.
The Registrar will reject a proposed business name as follows:
- undesirable;
The proposed business name is obscene in nature, whether it will cause offense to a friendly state or religion or any particular section of the local communities in Singapore, or whether the use of this business name is contrary to public policy.
- identical to the business name of another company, a variable capital company limited liability partnership, corporation, or business. Below is the list of words that will be disregarded during the assessment of identical names.
| The (at start of name) | Asia | Asia Pacific | Associates |
| Company | And Company | Corporation | Group |
| Holding/Holdings | Incorporated | International | Partner/Partners |
| Partnership/Partnerships | Singapore | South Asia | South East Asia |
| Trading | Worldwide | Berhad or Bhd | Limited or Ltd |
| Limited Liability Partnership or LLP | Limited Partnership or LP | Private or Pte | Public Accounting Corporation or PAC |
| Sendirian or Sdn | .co | .com | .edu |
| .gov | .net | .org | .sg |
- identical to another reserved business name; or
- of a kind the Minister of Finance has directed the Registrar not to accept. e.g. “Temasek”
Once your application is approved, you can proceed to incorporate your company. You must complete your incorporation within 120 days from the date of the name approval.
Additional Approvals for Certain Company Name Applications
Your name application may be referred to other government agencies for review and approval. If your application is referred, it may take between 14 to 60 days to process.
The Requirement to State your Company Name on All Correspondences
You must state your company’s name and registration number (UEN) in all business correspondences (such as business letters, statements of account, invoices, official notices, etc.) as required under the Companies Act. This helps to promote transparency and prevents misrepresentation.
Difference between Company Name and Trade Mark
Registering a company name with ACRA is not the same as registering a trademark. Your company name registration does not give you the exclusive rights or intellectual property rights to your company name.
Registering a Domain Name
Registering a company name with ACRA does not give you ownership rights to a matching domain name. Registration of domain names is on a first come first serve basis.
If you want to register a domain name ending with .sg or .com.sg for your company, you can approach us if you need further information.
