Ireland · Forming the company and its constitution
Company names, name reservation, change of name and misleading trading names
the Companies Act 2014 · sections 26, 27, 29, 30 and 32
A registered company name can be taken away within six months under section 30
A name that clears the initial check can still be taken away. If a company is registered by a name that is the same as, or too like, a name already on the register, section 30 lets the Registrar intervene. The company may change its name with the approval of the Registrar, or the Registrar may direct a change if the direction is given within six months after the date on which the offending name was registered (section 30(3)).
A direction under section 30(3)(b) is not open ended. It must be complied with within six weeks after the date on which it is given, or within such longer period as the Registrar thinks fit to allow (section 30(4)). Companies lose that window because the direction arrives at the registered office and is treated as correspondence rather than as a deadline.
Sections 26, 27, 29 and 30 control the registered name and section 32 controls trading names
Sections 26, 27 and 29 govern the name a company may be registered by, the reservation of a name in advance and the procedure for changing a name once registered. Section 30 carries the same-name and too-like-a-name control described above, together with the Registrar's power to direct. Section 32 deals with a name used in trade that is misleading as to the company that stands behind it.
The practical point is that name compliance runs on two tracks at once. The registered corporate name is controlled by the Act and by the Registrar, and any other name the company trades under is controlled separately, both by section 32 and by the law on the registration of business names. A company that trades under a name other than its corporate name is not excused from either track.
The system generates your ComplianceSME company passport and then walks you through the working files
Working file 3 of the IE-COMPANY agent toolkit covers this situation on its own. It asks what name the company is registered by, whether a reservation was used, whether any direction has been received from the Registrar and when, what other names the company trades under, and where the evidence of each of those answers is held. The output records the position against sections 26, 27, 29, 30 and 32 and marks each duty COMPLIANT, PARTIAL, GAP or NOT APPLICABLE.
- Working file 3 · Company names, name reservation, change of name and misleading trading names
Free, with a free account
The working files above open from your ComplianceSME account at no charge, and so does the rest of the Companies Act 2014 toolkit: 215 working files across the 75 situations a company registered in Ireland can be in. Working file 1 runs first and builds the company passport; after that you open each working file as its situation arises.
A working file runs in Claude. You ask the ComplianceSME connector for it in a dedicated premium seat on the Claude Team plan. It asks one question at a time, then returns the document the Companies Act 2014 names, citing the Act's section at every step. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is installed.
The report stays yours, ready for a bank, an insurer, a customer or an inspector. Your dashboard shows every working file and its state.
Open this working fileComplianceSME tracks the Companies Act 2014 and updates the toolkit on your account through the Compliance Complete account, so that you are never working from a superseded version. Compliance Complete