‘Reverse Cowgirl Riding School’, ‘Hashhunter Limited’ and ‘Beasts of Bondage’ are three of the more than 700 company names that have recently been rejected by Companies House, a freedom of information request (FOI) has revealed.
Between April 2023 and April 2024, the organisation responsible for incorporating and dissolving companies rejected a total of 766 applications on the grounds that the company’s name was too offensive.
Over a hundred were refused for containing references to sexual content, including companies with names like ‘Jerk Off Chicken’, ‘Jumping Bum’ and ‘Horny Brew’.
And 121 firms, with names like ‘Dope Deals Limited’, ‘Kush Investments’ and, were barred from registering on the grounds that they referenced drugs.
‘Colin Bakes Dope (Responsibly) Ltd’ didn’t make the cut despite pleading of its conscientiousness, while the more bluntly named ‘Illegal Limited’ was also rejected.
Almost 80 were refused on violence grounds, with names containing words like “mafia”, “killer”, and “burglar”, all commonly barred from registering with the company registrar.
But there were also more prosaic names that didn’t make the grade. ‘Queenbeescams Ltd’, ‘Versatile Execution Ltd’ and ‘The Toss Group’ all appeared on the list of rejected companies in the ‘uncategorised’ grouping, prompting fears the body was being overly scrupulous.
Nicholas Campion, director at 1st Formation, the business formations agency that submitted the FOI request, commented: “Rejecting company names like ‘The Men’s Grooming Clinic’ or ‘Crappy Nappy’ suggests an outdated assessment process.
“What if a legitimate company wants to match their business activities and trading names, as allowed by the likes of the Advertising Standards Agency?”
“Companies House is rightly recognised as the world’s preeminent company registrar, but regarding its rejection of certain company names, it may need to bring itself up to date with modern language usage, as the Oxford English Dictionary has done, and, while we’re at it, accommodate the Great British sense of humour.”