Ontario NUANS® Name Search

Corporation Name – The name for an Ontario business corporation must comply with the Business Corporations Act and Regulations

Legal Element – The word “Limited”, “Limitée”, “Incorporated”, “Incorporée” or “Corporation” or the corresponding abbreviations “Ltd.”, “Ltée”, “Inc.” or “Corp.” shall be part of the name of every corporation

English/French Versions – The name of a corporation may be in an English form only, a French form only, an English and a French form combined, or an English form and a French form which are equivalent but used separately

When the name is to have an English form and a French form to be used separately, the “/” mark shall separate the two forms in the name Versions in Languages Other Than English – A corporation may have in its articles, a special provision permitting it to set out its name in any language and the corporation may be legally designated by that name.

This would allow the corporation to legally use a foreign version of its corporate name for the purposes of conducting business, however, the foreign version would not be entered into the Branch’s electronic database (ONBIS) and, therefore, would not appear on a Certificate of Status produced in respect of the corporation name

Identical names – Corporation names can only be duplicated in the case of an amalgamation, or where the corporations comply with S.6 (1) or S.6 (2) of the Regulations. All other instances prohibit the use of a name for a corporation that is identical to the name or former name of another corporation, whether the name is active or not

In order to acquire a name that is not identical, the name may be varied by the addition or deletion of words, numerals, or initials, or by substituting one of the other required legal elements or their corresponding abbreviations

The addition or deletion of punctuation marks or other symbols is not sufficient to make the name different for the purposes of the Act

Other Business Names – A corporation may carry on its business activities under a name other than its corporate name, provided that the name is registered under the Business Names Act