Choose a company name
A company can choose its own name or be known by its Australian Company Number (ACN). There are rules governing the name a company can use. The public must be able to tell if the company is a public or proprietary company, and whether or not the shareholders have limited or unlimited liability.
Proprietary limited companies must have the words 'proprietary' and 'limited' or abbreviations of these words at the end of their name. For example:
- Proprietary Limited
- Proprietary Ltd
- Proprietary Ltd.
- Pty Limited
- Pty Limited.
- Pty Ltd
- Ltd.
Proprietary unlimited companies can only have the word 'proprietary' at the end of the name.
You can decide on your name and then use the company name availability checker on our website or on the ASIC website to check if the name is available to register. Please not that these tools do not provide a guarantee that your proposed name is available as there may be other factors taken into consideration when ASIC reviews your company registration request.