Estonian company name check

Before you form an Estonian company, its name has to pass the commercial register. The check above compares the name you type with every business name in the Estonian commercial register and tells you at once whether it is taken, too close to another name, or not found. The check is free and needs no sign-up. This guide explains the rule the registrar applies and what to do when your first choice is taken.

The guide is general information, not legal advice. The registrar decides on every name when the company is entered in the register.

The rule: clearly distinguishable

Under the Commercial Code (äriseadustik, § 11(2)), a business name must be clearly distinguishable from the business names already entered in the Estonian commercial register and from the names reserved there. The Supreme Court has explained what this means in practice:

• Identical is not the only problem. A name that is not identical but confusingly similar to a registered name is not clearly distinguishable either.
• Writing and pronunciation both count. Two names must differ both as written and as spoken.
• There is no fixed number of letters. The law does not say by how many letters names must differ; the registrar decides each case on its own facts.

What does not make a name different

• The legal form. “OÜ” or “osaühing”, and where it stands in the name, is not taken into account when names are compared. “Nordlys OÜ” and “OÜ Nordlys” are the same name.
• Letter case, spaces and punctuation. “Nord-Lys” and “nordlys” are written differently but read the same.
• General words. Adding words such as Group, Holding, Solutions, Digital, Consulting or a place name such as Estonia or Baltic to a registered name leaves its distinctive part unchanged. Our check marks such names as too close and names the registered company they match.
• Estonian accents or one letter. “Põhjala” and “Pohjala”, or names that differ by one letter, are reported as too close: they are easily confused in writing or in speech.

How to write the name

Estonian business names are written in Latin letters. The register entry carries the legal form, so a private limited company is entered as “Name OÜ” or “OÜ Name”; type the name in the check without it.

Other rules for a business name

• Written in the Estonian-Latin alphabet (Commercial Code § 12(8)); the legal-form appendage stands only at the beginning or the end (§ 9(4)).
• A trademark protected in Estonia only with its owner's consent certified by a notary (§ 12(3)).
• Not misleading about the legal form, the field or the scope of activity, and not contrary to good morals (§ 12(1)–(2)).
• The words “riigi”, “linna” and “valla” only if the state or a local government holds more than half of the shares (§ 12(7)); the Government may restrict the word “Eesti” (§ 12(4)).
• A name that is a place name needs an appendage that distinguishes it from the place name (§ 12(5)).

The check above warns where your name meets one of these rules; the registrar decides.

What the check tells you — and what it cannot

• Taken — the same name is already in the commercial register. Choose another name.
• Too close — no identical name, but one or more registered names differ only by general words, accents or one letter. The registrar may refuse your name; a different distinctive word is the safe choice.
• Not found — neither an identical nor a nearly identical name is in the register. That is a good start, not a guarantee of registration: names reserved in the register are not in the open data, and the registrar judges similarity case by case.

The check uses the commercial register's open data, published by the Centre of Registers and Information Systems and refreshed every day. It covers the commercial register (companies, sole traders and branches); non-profit associations, foundations and apartment associations are in another register and do not block a business name.

When your name is taken

1. Change the distinctive word, not the general words around it: a new invented word, a family name or a place that is not already used.
2. Check the new name the same way, and check one or two spare names before you order.
3. Consider a ready-made company if you need a company with history at once — its name can be changed later by a register entry.

Form a company with the name

When the check finds no matching name, the button under it opens the order form with formation chosen and your name already in the message. Formation in person at a notary office in Tallinn costs €950; remote formation by notarised power of attorney costs €1,250. E-residents can form the company online without a notary for €950. Each price includes the state fee, the registered address and the licensed contact person for the first 12 months.

Prices are without VAT. All communication is by email.

Official sources

The laws this article names, by the name of their official text, as read on 9 October 2026. For the Estonian acts we read the English translation in Riigi Teataja; the legally binding text is the Estonian one.

• Commercial Code — Riigi Teataja, English translation

Sources are named in the text, without links. To see which of our services your company needs, open the Business Navigator.

Frequently asked questions