Companies House rejects over 700 “offensive” names

Companies House, the UK’s official registrar of businesses, has rejected 761 company names in the 12 months to April 2023, based on whether a “reasonable person” would take offence. How that person is defined, however, remains unclear.

UK entrepreneurs have been very busy lately, with 900,006 companies formed in 2023, the highest-ever number of incorporations with Companies House. But the innovation hasn’t stopped there, especially when it comes to the branding of these new businesses.

Companies can spend countless hours and vast amounts of money on getting their names right, even if the end result isn’t quite as well received as they might like. Generally speaking, though, they pass the test at Companies House. But not all of them. Some, in fact, hundreds, are deemed too offensive.

According to a freedom of information request submitted by 1st Formations, Companies House turned down nearly 800 appellations last year, because they might offend a “reasonable person” – we’ve attached the full list as a PDF at the bottom of this blog for you to peruse at your own leisure (and displeasure).

The naughty list includes Doggy Style Cheshire Ltd, Welsh Bollocks Ltd, Liquid Crack Ltd, Dog Tits Bakery Ltd, Scorpio Bastardo Ltd and The People’s Dankest Cannabis Company Limited. The most bizarre and longest submission was: I Could Tell That My Parents Hated Me. My Bath Toys Were A Toaster And A Radio Ltd.

Does that sound unreasonable? If not, here are some of the rejected puns that raised eyebrows (and blood pressure) across Companies House: W H Spliff Ltd, No.B.S Ltd, Master Baits Limited, and WTF Where’s the Food Ltd. In short, it would seem that the government’s register of companies has become a playground for the UK Pun Championship (that’s a real thing) and other linguistic Olympics, given that over 100 of the rejected submissions involved a play on words.

UK entrepreneurs even managed to illustrate the diversity of the f-word, which was by far the most popular expletive among the rejected names.

Companies House doesn’t like sex and pot

Of the 761 declined submissions, the majority involved expletives and sex-related obscenities, or were drug-related. The remainder related to the following themes: hacking, paedophilia, violence or hate speech (namely, racism, sexism and homophobia). Many other names, however, gave no obvious rationale behind their rejection.

Within the drug category, the majority of names revolved around the following substances: hashish, weed, shrooms and LSD. In fact, of the 121 drug-related names that were rejected, almost half were related to cannabis, our favourite one being: Colin Bakes Dope (Responsibly) Ltd. Given that medicinal cannabis production (and consumption) in the UK is growing while legalisation is on the horizon, submissions like these are only likely to grow.

“Companies House is rightly recognised as the world’s leading company registrar, but regarding their rejection of certain company names, things appear less cutting edge,” says Nicholas Campion, a director at 1st Formations. “It might not be remiss for them to bring themselves up to date with modern vernacular, much as the Oxford English Dictionary has done, and whilst we’re at it, accommodate the Great British sense of humour and love of puns!”.

“Declining company names like Boob Snood Ltd and Crappy Nappy Ltd suggests a somewhat outdated assessment process,” says Campion. “What if a legitimate company wants to match their business activities and trading names, as allowed by the likes of the Advertising Standards Agency?”.

Indeed, dozens of the 761 rejected submissions appear to relate to very legitimate businesses trading by the same name. For example, Crappy Nappy is an incense brand. Doggy Style Cheshire is a “fully-mobile dog grooming, boutique and spa [business],” according to its website. The rejected Phat Phuc Noodle Bar Ltd may relate to the famous Vietnamese restaurant in Chelsea, while Super Sonic Booty Bangers Ltd was probably submitted by the well-known UK record label of the same name.

It is by no means a new phenomenon that some UK businesses cannot match their trade name with their registration name. For example, the well-known sandwich chain, Egg Slut, is a controversial trading name (some would call it misogynistic) that would probably get rejected by Companies House, which is one reason why it’s registered under ITICO F+B Limited. Paradoxically, Companies House did allow through its gates a company by the name of The Book Slut Ltd, incorporated in 2018.

• New Companies House scam warning for UK businesses
• Women founded a record number of businesses in 2023. Here’s why.
• Companies House filing fees increase, 1 May 2024

When it comes to discrimination, violence and crime, however, the UK’s register of companies takes a consistent and understandably rigid view, rejecting all references. Not that this stopped the Sicilian Mafia, or some of its fans, from trying to register six different variations of Cosa Nostra, including a fashion spin off in the form of Cosa Nostra Clothing Ltd. The family firm may be branching out.

Who is a reasonable person?

Companies House has said that the applications it received are “carefully considered”, but that any name “considered offensive” will not be registered.

It has also said that certain words are automatically flagged for rejection by their systems. The rest are reviewed on a case-by-case basis to determine if the name “as a whole is offensive” based on “whether a reasonable person would take offence.” Companies House has said they define a ‘reasonable person’ based on the “ordinary dictionary definition of reasonable”.

With that made crystal clear, it remains peculiar that the reasoning behind a significant proportion of the 761 rejected names is not obvious, or not at least to the author of this article (who may very well be an unreasonable person). In fact, here at 1st Formations we found that, of the 761 rejected names, almost 200 (25%) did not have an obvious rationale behind their rejection, as per the above pie chart. The question is begged once again: how does one define a “reasonable person”?

One thing is certain: anyone who believes their company name has been rejected in error can ask Companies House to review the decision. Such petitions may be growing in volume, given that the number names rejected by Companies House appears to be on the up. Between September 2019 and September 2021, only 800 company names were rejected by Companies House, compared to the (almost) 800 names rejected over the last 12 month period.

FOI Companies House Rejected Names: Full List