Choosing a company name in Moldova: rules, register, and reservation

The denomination of a Moldovan legal entity is the first decision that the registrar at ASP will judge, and the one that founders most often have to redo. The rules sit in Law 220/2007 Articleand the Civil Code Article 66, with practical effect shaped by ASP's procedural guidelines and a small number of Constitutional Court decisions on commercial-name distinguishability. A name that does not clear those rules will be rejected at the counter, and a name that clears them but conflicts with a registered trademark in the AGEPI register will still cause trouble once the SRL starts trading.

This guide walks through the statutory rules, the State Register similarity check, the reservation mechanics, and the common rejection patterns we see at the firm. The companion Moldovan company name check tool runs the same ten rules against the active State Register in seconds and flags borderline matches our team would otherwise verify by hand.

The statutory standard, in one paragraph

Articleof Law 220/2007 on the State Registration of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs requires that the denomination include the legal-form indicator in Romanian (the full Societate cu Răspundere Limitată in the long form, or the SRL abbreviation in the short form), use the Latin alphabet (Romanian diacritics are allowed; raw Cyrillic is rejected, foreign-language elements must be transliterated to Latin), and be evidently distinguishable from existing entries on the State Register. The Civil Code Articleadds that the denomination is the legal identifier of the legal person and binds it in all dealings with third parties, so changing it later costs filing fees, contract amendments, bank-account renaming, and brand equity. Get it right at the start.

The ten rules ASP applies

Reproduced here in the same order our name-check tool evaluates them. Every rule has a statutory anchor; nothing on this list is editorial.

1. Length. The distinctive element runs three to roughlycharacters in practice. Shorter is rejected for lack of distinctiveness; longer fails ASP's filing form constraints.
2. Character set. Latin alphabet, Romanian diacritics (ă, â, î, ș, ț), digits, and standard punctuation are accepted. Foreign-language elements must be transliterated to Latin per Article 9(2). Raw Cyrillic in the registered form is refused even if the founder operates in a Russophone market; the working-language denomination can sit in Russian for internal use, but the registered string is Latin.
3. Legal-form indicator. The full Romanian phrase (Societate cu Răspundere Limitată, Societate pe Acțiuni, Întreprindere Individuală, Societate în Nume Colectiv, Societate în Comandită, Cooperativă de Producție) must appear in the long form. The abbreviation alone (SRL, SA, II, SNC, SCS, CP) is accepted in the short form. ASP accepts the indicator before or after the distinctive element.
4. State-name reference. The terms Moldova, Republica Moldova, Țara Moldovei, and the adjectives Moldovan and Moldovenesc require a special Government Commission authorisation issued after a thirty-day review with a state fee of 100,000 lei (around 5,000 EUR). Eligibility is narrow: at leastper cent export revenue, large-taxpayer status, foreign parent with a global brand, orper cent state capital. The tool flags state-name references as warnings so you can decide whether the authorisation path is worth the cost.
5. Administrative-unit names. City or district names (Chișinău, Bălți, Cahul, Orhei, Ungheni, Soroca, and so on) require the corresponding local council's written consent. ASP refuses to register the denomination without it.
6. Public-authority references. ASP, SFS, BNM, CNPF, CNA, MAI, MJ, Guvern, Parlament, Ministerul, Președinția, and the Cancelaria de Stat are prohibited absent specific authorisation. The risk of confusion with a public body trumps the founder's branding preference.
7. Sector-restricted terms. Bancă, asigurare, reasigurare, bursă, fond de investiții, fond de pensii, schimb valutar, microfinanțare, and credit require a sectoral licence from BNM or CNPF before ASP will register the name. ASP cross-checks the activity register and refuses denominations that imply regulated activity without authorisation.
8. International-organisation references. UN, ONU, UNESCO, Olympic, NATO, Red Cross, EU, and Council of Europe references are prohibited under the public-authority and trademark provisions. A foreign founder branching a global organisation into Moldova has a separate authorisation route; an entrepreneur picking the name for marketing does not.
9. Moral-norms clause. ASP refuses denominations that contravene moral norms or public-decency standards. The tool runs a 235-entry blocklist of slurs in English, Romanian, and Russian; illegal-substance street names; extremist or terrorist references; and adult-industry vocabulary. The list captures what a human registrar would refuse at the counter.
10. Distinctiveness. Single common words like Trade, Holding, Services, Consulting, or Group are rejected as insufficiently distinctive. The denomination must carry a unique modifier the registrar can distinguish from generic descriptors.

The "evidently distinguishable" rule, in practice

Article 9(3) requires the denomination to be evidently distinguishable from existing entries. ASP applies a string-similarity test in addition to exact-string matching. Names rejected at the counter typically differ from existing entries only by:

• A single letter change (Mayb Tech vs Maib Tech).
• A plural or singular flip (Solutions vs Solution).
• A word reorder (Tech Maib vs Maib Tech).
• A punctuation tweak (Maib-Tech vs Maib Tech).
• A generic descriptor added (Maib Tech Solutions vs Maib Tech).
• A transliteration variant (Moldova vs Moldowa).

Our tool emulates the same standard with a Jaro-Winkler distance plus a token-set ratio, scoring the distinctive part of the name after stripping common generic words like innovations or solutions so a shared suffix does not produce a false positive. A match scoring aboveper cent on either metric is flagged as Likely rejected with the registered entry surfaced. The prudent path on a borderline match is a manual confirmation with ASP before any reservation fee is paid; our team runs that confirmation in writing within four business hours.

The AGEPI trademark cross-check

ASP only verifies that the denomination is distinguishable in the legal-entity register. The Agenția de Stat pentru Proprietatea Intelectuală (AGEPI) maintains a separate trademark register. A name that clears ASP can still infringe a registered Moldovan or international trademark. The risk is two-sided:

• A trademark holder can sue your SRL for infringement once you start trading under the conflicting denomination, with damages and a name-change order.
• ASP can refuse the original reservation if the trademark conflict is sufficiently notorious (a global brand like Coca-Cola, BMW, or Apple), under the doctrine of well-known marks.

Our team runs the AGEPI cross-check on every name reservation we file. The tool does not replicate the AGEPI search because the trademark register is not openly licensed for redistribution.

The reservation step

Once the pre-flight is clean, the denomination can be reserved at ASP for up to six months. The reservation locks the name and gives the founder room to finalise the dossier without race-condition risk: another applicant cannot file the same denomination while the reservation runs. Fees scale by turnaround:

• 5 business days, free (NGOs only)
• 3 days,lei
• 24 hours,lei
• 4 hours,lei
• 1 hour,lei

Channels: ASP multifunctional centres in Chișinău, Bălți, Cahul, and the regional offices, by post, or by email to inregistrare.ud@asp.gov.md. The reservation can also be filed electronically through ASP's e-services portal with an authorised electronic signature.

For most founders we file the reservation and the SRL registration in a single submission so the name is never sitting on hold separately from the rest of the formation dossier. The reservation-then-registration two-step is used when the founder needs more time to align trademark filings, domain purchases, and bank-account paperwork before the SRL is formally on the register.

Common rejection patterns we see at the firm

The five examples below are all real refusals from our pipeline; names are altered for privacy.

1. Generic-word collisions. A founder reserved Tech Solutions SRL in a sector with twelve similarly named entries. ASP refused under the distinctiveness rule. The fix was a unique modifier prefixed to the descriptors.
2. Plural-flip near-match. MoldBuild SRL was already on the register when a founder filed MoldBuilds SRL. The registrar held the names were not evidently distinguishable. Adding a sector or geographic modifier (MoldBuilds Construction Group SRL) cleared the refusal.
3. State-name surprise. A founder filed Moldova Innovate SRL without the Government Commission authorisation. ASP issued the refusal letter; the founder either pays 100,000 lei to start the Commission review or removes the state reference. We always recommend removing the reference unless the eligibility criteria are clearly met.
4. Sector-term gating. A founder filed Premier Banking Group SRL before the BNM licence application. ASP refused under the sector-restriction rule. The denomination has to clear the licence track first, or the founder picks a sector-neutral name.
5. Cyrillic in the registered form. A founder filed the denomination in Russian Cyrillic, intending to operate in the Russophone market. ASP refused under the Latin-alphabet rule. The fix is to file the Latin transliteration; the founder can still trade in Russian and use the Cyrillic form in marketing materials, but the registered string is Latin.

How to use the name-check tool

Open the tool, type the distinctive part of the name (the tool adds the legal form), pick the legal form, and read the verdict. The right pane returns:

• A statutory checklist of the ten rules above with pill chips (OK, Warn, Fail) and a one-line plain-English explanation for each.
• A register match block showing any exact match, any close match aboveper cent similarity with the similarity score, and any related match aboveper cent for awareness.
• A headline verdict: Ready to reserve, Needs review, Likely rejected, Likely taken, or Blocked.

If the verdict is Ready to reserve, the CTA prefills our contact form with the proposed denomination and the legal form; our team verifies the AGEPI cross-check and files the reservation under power of attorney. If the verdict is Likely rejected or Needs review, the same path applies but our team confirms the precise outcome with the registrar before any fee is paid.

A pragmatic naming brief

A short brief of what we ask founders for on the discovery call, in case the name is still open:

• Sector and geography. Where the SRL will trade, the target customer base, the language of the customer.
• Brand registers held elsewhere. Existing trademarks, domain portfolios, and word-mark filings under the founder's name in other jurisdictions.
• Growth horizon. Whether the brand is meant to scale into the EU, the Americas, the CIS, or stay Moldova-focused. A name that resonates locally may not travel.
• Language preference. Romanian-language denominations carry well with the local customer base; English-language denominations travel better but compete with global trademarks more aggressively.
• Sound and length. Pronounceable in Romanian and in the founder's working language, short enough to fit on letterhead and the bank-account caption without truncation.

We then propose three distinctive candidates that pass ASP, AGEPI, and the substance test, and reserve the founder's preferred option the same week.

When to use the tool and when to call

The name-check tool is the right starting point for any founder. Run the shortlist through it; the tool catches the statutory blockers and the obvious near-matches, and saves the manual ASP query for the borderline cases. When the verdict is clean across the board, the reservation step is routine; when it surfaces a "Likely rejected" match or a sector-restricted term, our team takes it from there. The earlier our advisor sees the proposed name, the cheaper the rework if it has to be redone.

Related guides

• Moldova SRL: complete formation guide — the full setup workflow with the name reservation in step two.
• Company formation in Moldova: a comprehensive checklist — what to gather before the discovery call.
• Avoid company registration mistakes in Moldova — the most common rework patterns, with the name selection topping the list.
• What to look for in a Moldova company formation provider — how we evaluate the trade-off between the cheapest formation route and the one that survives audit.
• Moldovan company name check tool — the ten statutory rules and the active-register lookup, free.
• Moldovan business structure decision tree — settle the legal form before the name reservation goes in.