Pursuant to Companies Act (Cap. 50), S27, company names must not be:
- undesirable (vulgar, offensive, obscene, prohibited)
- identical to that of any corporation or to a business name
- identical to a name that is being reserved by another corporation or business
- a name of a kind that the Minister has directed the Registrar, by notification in the Gazette, not to accept for registration (e.g. Temasek)
Refer to the Practice Direction No.4 of 2003 for information on the selection of names.
The time it takes to approve a business name is within a day. However, it may take 14 days to 2 months if the application needs to be referred to another government agency for approval as per List of Referral Authorities.
A name may be reserved for a period of 60 days from the date of name application. You may extend name reservation for another 60 days if you need more time to register a business. However, no further extension is permitted thereafter.
