Using characters and symbols in company names?
There are restrictions on the characters, signs, symbols and/or punctuation that can be used in a company name.
Standard characters found on a UK keyboard can all be used in a company name without restriction. Punctuation can also be used but is ignored when checking name availability or comparing similar company names. In some cases however, the Companies Act 2006 will restrict the use of some signs and symbols from being used in parts of a company name.
Some characters or symbols cannot be used, while others can only be used in certain locations within a company name.
Company Formation
- Full company documents
Standard Characters, Signs and Symbols Found on a UK Keyboard!
The following is a list of characters, signs and symbols that can be used in any part of a company name without restriction:
A-Z (any standard letter)
0-9 (any standard numeric)
& (ampersand)
@ (at sign)
£ (pound sign)
$ (dollar sign)
€ (euro sign)
¥ (yen sign)
Full Stop (.), Comma (,), Colon (:), Semi-Colon (;), or Hyphen (-)
Any Apostrophe (‘) Bracket ((, ), [, ], {, }, < or >), Exclamation Mark (!), Guillemet (« or »), Inverted Comma (“), Question Mark (?) or Solidus (\ or /) but only in one of the forms displayed opposite the punctuation above.
You can submit a company name with any of the above characters, signs or symbols today. Most companies are formed in an just a few hours or you can select the Same Day Company Formation.
Restricted Signs and Symbols When Used in the First 3 Letters of a Company Name!
The following list of signs and symbols are permitted characters that are acceptable to be used in company names. However, these signs and symbols are not permitted to be used as one of the first three characters of the name:
*
=
#
%
+
For example you can no longer form A+A QWERTY LTD as it contains a symbol in the first three characters of the company name. However, you could register QWERTY A+A LTD as the plus sign is not in the first three characters of the company name.
According to the Companies Act 2006, a company name must not consist of any more than 160 of the above permitted characters and must always end with a suffix of LIMITED or LTD (in the case of limited by shares companies).