Skip to main content

In This Volume

Capital Letters Preferred

The registrar prefers all party names to appear printed or typed in capitals.

Name of Company

Where the Business Corporations Act applies, the registrar requires that the name of a company comply with the form required by s. 23(1) of that Act.

  • 23 (1) Subject to section 51.21(1), a company must have the word “Limited”, “Limitée”, “Incorporated”, “Incorporée” or “Corporation” or the abbreviation “Ltd.”, “Ltée”, “Inc.” or “Corp.” as part of and at the end of its name.

The registrar recognizes that these full words and abbreviations are interchangeable in accordance with s. 23(2) of that Act.

  • 23 (2) For all purposes, each of the words “Limited”, “Limitée”, “Incorporated”, “Incorporée” and “Corporation” is interchangeable with its abbreviation “Ltd.”, “Ltée”, “Inc.” and “Corp.”, respectively.

Multilingual Names

Where the Business Corporations Act applies, the registrar requires that the name of a company comply with s. 25(1) of that Act.

  • 25 (1) The name of a company must be in one or both of
  • (a) an English form, and
  • (b) a French form.

The registrar recognizes the use of the English name or the French name, or a combination of the English and French name in accordance with s. 25(2) of that Act.

  • 25 (2) If the name of a company is in both an English form and a French form, the company may use, and may be legally designated by, either form or a combination of both forms for the purposes of section 27 or any other purpose.

Numbered Companies

Numbered company names for companies incorporated on or after March 29, 2004, are formatted with a leading zero plus six digits followed by B.C. Ltd., as illustrated in the following example.
  • 0710199 B.C. Ltd.

The registrar also accepts the following abbreviation where the first numeral in an incorporation number is a zero under s. 23(3) of the Business Corporations Act:

  • 23 (3) If the name of a company includes its incorporation number and if the first numeral of that incorporation number is a zero,
  • (a) the name may be abbreviated by removing that zero, and
  • (b) the abbreviated name is, for all purposes, interchangeable with the unabbreviated name.

Specially Limited Companies—Transitional Provisions

Section 442 of the Business Corporations Act, S.B.C. 2002, c. 57, makes the following transitional provisions with respect to the name of specially limited companies under s. 16(2) of the former Company Act:
  • 442 (1) In this section, “specially limited company” means a pre-existing company to which one or more of sections 27 to 30 of the Company Act, 1996, applied immediately before the coming into force of this Act.
  • (2) If, immediately before the coming into force of this Act, the name of a specially limited company included the words “Non-Personal Liability” or the abbreviation “N.P.L.”, those words or that abbreviation, as the case may be, are, on the coming into force of this Act, struck out of the company’s name.
  • (3) If a specially limited company’s name is changed under subsection (2) of this section,
  • (a) the registrar must alter the corporate register to reflect the change of name but need not issue any record, including a change of name certificate, to any person, including the company, to record the change of name,
  • (b) the company must alter all of its current records, whether kept under section 42 or under section 111, to reflect the change of name referred to in subsection (2) of this section and the company may, despite any other provision of this Act, make the alterations contemplated by this paragraph without obtaining any resolution to direct or authorize those alterations, and
  • (c) the company must ensure that all records issued by the company after the coming into force of this Act reflect the changed name of the company.
  • (4) Despite any wording to the contrary in a security agreement or other record, the alterations to the records under subsection (3) do not constitute a breach or contravention of, or a default under, the security agreement or other record, and are deemed for the purposes of the security agreement or other record not to be alterations to the charter of the specially limited company.

Unlimited Liability Companies

Section 51.21(1) of the Business Corporations Act provides that an unlimited liability company:
  • (a) must have the words “Unlimited Liability Company” or the abbreviation “ULC” as part of and at the end of its name, and
  • (b) must not have any of the words or abbreviations referred to in section 23(1) as part of its name.