Hong Kong Company Incorporation Guide (2) – Choices of Names of a Hong Kong Company

1. General Requirements of a Company Name

• A company may be registered with an English name, a Chinese name, or an English name and a Chinese name. A company name with a combination of English words/letters and Chinese characters are not allowed.
• An English company name must end with the word “Limited” and a Chinese company name must end with the characters “有限公司”.
• A Chinese company name should contain traditional Chinese characters (繁體字) that can be found in the Kang Xi Dictionary (康熙字典) or Ci Hai Dictionary (辭海) AND also in the ISO 10646 international coding standard.

2. Circumstances in which a Company Name will NOT be registered

• Generally speaking, a company name will not be registered if:-

it is the same as a name appearing in the Registrar’s index of company names;

it is the same as that of a body corporate incorporated or established under an Ordinance;

in the opinion of the Chief Executive, its use would constitute a criminal offence; or

in the opinion of the Chief Executive, it is offensive or otherwise contrary to the public interest.

• In determining whether a company name is “the same as” another, the following shall be disregarded:

the definite article, where it is the first word of the name

(e.g. The ABC Limited = ABC Limited)

the ending words or expressions “company”, “and company”, “company limited”, “and company limited”, “limited”, “unlimited”, “public limited company”, their abbreviations, and the ending characters “公司”, “有限公司”, “無限公司” and “公眾有限公司”

(e.g. ABC Company Limited = ABC Limited = ABC Co., Limited; 甲乙丙有限公司 = 甲乙丙公眾有限公司)

type and case of letters, accents, spaces between letters and punctuation marks

(e.g. A-B-C Limited = a b c Limited)

The following words and their abbreviations will also be taken as the same:

“and”= “&”

“Hong Kong” = “Hongkong” = “HK”

“Far East” and “FE”

• In determining whether a Chinese company name is the same as another, the Registrar has specified a list of interchangeable Chinese characters at Appendix A which are regarded as the same. The list of Chinese characters is not exhaustive, and the Registrar may amend it from time to time.

3. Company Name which will Require Approval before Registration

The Chief Executive’s approval is required for a company name which, in the opinion of the Chief Executive, would be likely to give the impression that the company is connected in any way with the Central People’s Government or the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region or any department of either government. Such names will be allowed only where it is considered there is a genuine connection with the Central People’s Government or the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. The use of words such as “Department” (部門), “Government”(政府), “Commission”(公署), “Bureau”(局), “Federation”(聯邦), “Council”(議會), “Authority”(委員會), would in certain circumstances imply such a connection and will not normally be approved.