How to name an Ontario company without painting yourself into a corner

Step 1: write your naming criteria before you brainstorm

Decide what the name must do before you think of any names. Otherwise you'll fall for the first clever idea and invent criteria to justify it. Write down answers to five questions:

1. Who is the main customer? A name for a commercial cleaning company selling to property managers sounds different from one selling to busy parents.
2. What feeling should it carry? Pick two words, such as "dependable and local" or "calm and premium".
3. How far will you go? One neighbourhood, one city, a region, all of Ontario, or beyond?
4. What will you add later? If you start with window cleaning and might add gutter work, don't name yourself "Window" anything.
5. What must it avoid? Competitors' patterns, words with unfortunate meanings in your customers' languages, and anything that over-promises.

Keep that page in front of you for the rest of the process.

Step 2: generate widely, then cut hard

Aim for 20 to 40 rough candidates from several directions:

• Descriptive: says what you do, in the pattern "[Area] + [Service]". Clear, but often crowded and hard to protect.
• Suggestive: hints at the benefit the customer gets rather than naming the service outright. A good middle ground for many small companies.
• Founder or family names: personal and trusted in many trades and professions, but harder to sell later.
• Place-based: a street, river, landmark or historic community. Memorable locally, limiting if you grow.
• Coined or abstract: invented words. Easier to make distinctive, but they need more marketing to mean anything.

Then cut to about ten using your criteria page. Be ruthless; you're looking for names that could survive every check below.

Step 3: run the screening checks in this order

The order matters because the early checks are free and quick, and they eliminate most candidates before you spend time on the slower ones.

The phone test

Say each name once to someone who hasn't heard it, then ask them to spell it and repeat it the next day. Note how many get it right. Names fail here for predictable reasons: silent letters, unusual spellings of common words, numbers that could be written as words, and two names that sound alike. In multilingual markets such as Brampton, Mississauga or Ottawa, test with speakers of the languages your customers use.

The search test

Type each name into Google exactly as customers would. What comes up? If the first page is full of a large brand, a common word or a place, you'll struggle to be found even for your own name. Also search the name plus your service and city.

The Ontario registry check

Anyone can search the Ontario Business Registry for free. Use it to look for identical or near-identical names already registered in the province. Finding a match doesn't automatically rule a name out, and not finding one doesn't make it safe, but an exact match in your own category is a strong reason to move on.

The trademark look-up

Trademarks in Canada are federal and administered by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. The Canadian Trademarks Database is free to search. Look for marks that look or sound like yours in related goods or services. Interpreting what you find is a legal judgement, so treat this step purely as a filter: anything that looks close goes on a list for your lawyer, or off your shortlist.

Domains and handles

Check whether a sensible .ca and .com are available at a normal registration price, and whether the main social handles are free. Avoid awkward workarounds such as extra hyphens or "get" and "the" prefixes unless the name is strong enough to carry them.

Step 4: test the survivors on real customers

Take the three to five names that passed and show them to people who match your customer, not to friends who want to be supportive. Use a simple script:

• "Here are a few names for a new [type of business] in [City]. Which would you call first, and why?"
• "What do you think a company called [Name] does?"
• "Which one would you remember tomorrow?"

If people consistently guess the wrong service from a name, it'll cost you in marketing for years. Our naming service includes this testing step for founders who'd like help structuring it.

Step 5: register, with professional advice where it matters

Once you have a winner and a backup, decide how you'll register. Ontario's guidance on ownership structures recommends consulting a lawyer or professional advisor before you incorporate, and that conversation is a good moment to ask about the name too.

As of October 2026, Ontario's registration page explains:

• a sole proprietorship registration costs $60, and incorporating a business corporation costs $300 (the province's fees page lists online processing as immediate)
• a named Ontario corporation needs an Ontario-biased or weighted NUANS name search report, ordered from a private search company
• a federally biased NUANS report won't be accepted for an Ontario incorporation
• a corporation can use a number name instead, and some owners do this and trade under a separate brand

Confirm all of this on the official pages before you file; fees and requirements change.

Common naming mistakes we see in Ontario

• Paying for registration before checking the domain. The $60 or $300 filing is the cheap part. Discovering the matching domain belongs to someone else is the expensive part.
• Choosing a city name and then expanding. A Kitchener name feels odd to a Guelph customer. If you might grow, choose a regional or neutral name, or accept a rebrand later.
• Copying the pattern of a successful competitor. It feels safe and makes you forgettable.
• Assuming a registered business name is a trademark. They're different systems run by different governments. Ask a professional what each actually protects.
• Ignoring spoken language. If customers can't say it, they can't recommend it.

What to do after you've chosen

With the name settled, the next decisions are your positioning and visual identity, then a small website. The first-website guide covers that stage, and the 90-day launch plan covers the marketing that follows. If you'd like a second opinion on your shortlist, see our pricing for an hourly review.