What can I call my charity?

England and Wales: This page sets out the position in full, including the 2023 change that reaches working names as well as your registered name. Scotland: covered, with its own grounds and its own process for changing a name later, extended to working names too since 1 April 2024 — see below. Northern Ireland: not researched for this step; do not read the England and Wales position across.

Working names: the change the Charities Act 2022 made

When you choose a charity name in England and Wales, note this change. The Charity Commission’s power over names now covers working names as well as the registered name. The Charities Act 2022 made that change. It has been in force since 14 June 2023. Almost nothing written before that date reflects it.

If you have not yet decided your legal form, choose your legal structure first: a CIO or a company name has to clear extra rules.

Scotland has since made the same move under its own rules. Northern Ireland’s guidance does not cover names at all.

A working name is any name, other than the charity’s registered name, that:

• is used to designate the charity
• is the name under which its activities are carried out

Before June 2023 the power bit only on the registered name. So a charity could register a plain formal name and trade under a punchier one. That was a way round the rules. That way round has now been closed.

Campaign names, trading names and brand names are all now in scope. The Commission can direct that a working name stop being used altogether.

This is a direction power, not a pre-clearance scheme. Nothing in the Act approves a name in advance. The Commission acts if a ground is met.

When it acts, the direction has to set a deadline for compliance. So a name can be in use, in your branding and on your printed materials. It can still have to be dropped later. That is why checking before you print anything matters.

The five grounds the Commission can act on in England and Wales

A charity or working name can be directed to change on any of five grounds:

• if it is the same as, or too like, another charity’s name or working name
• if it is likely to mislead the public as to the charity’s true purposes or activities
• if it includes a specified word or expression likely to mislead the public as to the charity’s status
• if it is likely to give the impression of a connection to government, a local authority or any other body when none exists
• if it is offensive

The status-misleading ground works as a gateway, not a blanket ban. A regulation-specified word in a name is not itself prohibited. It only bites where including it is also likely to mislead as to status.

Thousands of registered charities properly use words like “National” or “Trust” in their names without any issue. This research pass established the five grounds and the working-name extension to a solid standard. It stopped short of publishing the operative list of specified words itself.

The instrument that names them has no amendment tracking on legislation.gov.uk at all. So its currency cannot be independently confirmed, unlike every other citation here. It is being checked before any such list is published here. The list is deliberately left out.

Companies House rules for a CIO’s name

The Commission separately warns anyone forming a new CIO to check that the chosen name does not also require Companies House approval. A CIO is not a company, but it is still included in the index of business names. So a name cleared only against the register of charities can still be blocked by a separate regime.

If your charity is a company, or becomes one later, a change to its registered name is a Companies House transaction. A new company’s name is first registered when you incorporate at Companies House. It has its own fee, separate from anything the Charity Commission charges: £20 online, more by paper.

Scotland: OSCR’s four grounds and its own name-change procedure

A Scottish charity’s name is objectionable on four grounds. OSCR must then refuse it or later direct a change. The four grounds are: A body's name is objectionable, and OSCR must refuse it (or later direct a change), if it is: (a) the same as, or too like, the name or working name of an existing charity; (b) likely to mislead the public as to the true nature of the body's purposes or activities; (c) likely to give the impression the body is connected to the Scottish Administration, UK Government, a local authority or any other person when it is not; or (d) offensive.

Unlike England and Wales, Scotland has no separate ground for a specified word that implies a status the charity does not have. A name that misleads as to status has to be argued under the misleading-purposes or false-connection grounds instead.

Since 1 April 2024 all four grounds reach working names as well as registered names. This mirrors the working-name extension England and Wales made in June 2023. The two nations moved in the same direction, on separate timetables.

Changing a Scottish charity’s name after registration has its own procedure, covered with the other regimes in change your charity’s name. It is not a version of the England and Wales one: A charity may change its name only with OSCR's consent. It gives OSCR notice of the proposed new name; if OSCR does not, within 28 days, either refuse consent or direct the charity not to change its name for a specified period of up to 6 months, consent is treated as given. OSCR may refuse only where it considers the proposed name falls within the s.10 objectionable-name grounds, or it cannot satisfy itself (after reasonable inquiry) that it does not.

Separately, OSCR can also act on its own initiative or on request after registration: OSCR can act on its own initiative or on a charity's request for a review. On request, if OSCR is satisfied two charities' names (or working names) are too alike, it must direct one or both to change name, or to stop using the working name for a specified period. Separately, at any other time, if OSCR considers a charity's name falls within the s.10 grounds it MUST direct a change of name; if it considers a working name is 'objectionable' (i.e. would fall within s.10(1) if it were the charity's name) it MAY direct the charity to stop using it. A charity that fails to comply with a name-change direction is removed from the Register.

A charity that does not comply with a name-change direction is removed from the Register. The sanction sits behind the naming rules, not apart from them.

If you are forming a Scottish charitable incorporated organisation, the same Companies House cross-check applies as for a CIO. OSCR’s own pre-application guidance flags Companies House sensitive words, such as Scotland, Trust, Foundation, Association, Society and Fund. A name containing one still needs Companies House sign-off, on top of clearing OSCR’s own four grounds.

Northern Ireland: no published naming rules

Northern Ireland’s registration guidance does not address name clearance at all. This research pass read CCNI’s registration guidance in full. It looked specifically for name-availability and name-clearance content, and none exists. The guidance covers governing documents, trustees, bank accounts and public benefit in detail. It does not cover naming.

That is worth printing as a finding in its own right. It is more useful to a Northern Ireland founder than silence would be. It is also more honest than assuming the England and Wales grounds apply unchanged. Do not reuse the England and Wales or Scottish grounds for a Northern Ireland application without independent verification.

With a name checked and recorded, the next step is to recruit your founding trustees.

Common mistake: registering a plain formal name and trading under something more marketable

It is standard commercial practice. Until recently the regulator’s name power bit only on the registered name. So it worked. Since June 2023 the power reaches working names.

A working name is any name used to designate the charity and under which its activities are carried out. The regulator can direct that a working name stop being used altogether. Campaign names, trading names and brand names are all in scope.

Common mistake: assuming a CIO escapes Companies House name rules because it is not a company

A CIO is not a company, so company rules feel irrelevant. The Commission warns applicants forming a new CIO to check that the name does not require Companies House approval. The sensitive-word regime reaches CIOs. A name cleared only against the charity register can still be rejected.

Common mistake: printing materials before the name is cleared

Naming feels like a branding decision, so branding follows immediately. There is no pre-clearance scheme.

The regulator does not approve a name in advance. It directs a change afterwards if a ground is met. The direction sets a deadline for compliance. So a name can be used and built on and still have to go.

Worked example

A charity’s registered name is neutral, but it campaigns under a punchier one. Both names are now testable against the same grounds:

• too like another charity’s
• misleading as to purposes or activities
• misleading as to status
• implying a connection that does not exist
• offensive

The record’s own scenario is kept as written. It is not forced onto Wrenfield, Tollgate or Saltmarsh, as with the rest of this batch. The outcome: both names are checked before either is used, not only the one on the registration form.