In the USA, companies often include standard abbreviations in their official name. For example, if I had a company I might call it **Thorp, Inc. ** or Thorp & Co., Inc.
What would I call my company if I were based in the UK? Would it still be Thorp, Inc., or would a name such as **Thorp, Ltd ** be more appropriate?
I’d be interested to know the general answer to this question and also to know the best place (online) to find lists of “official” company names.
Thanks in advance,
E.
I’ve seen company names from the UK end their name with plc. What’s plc?
public limited company
So far as I can tell, “Inc.” is used primarily in the United States and Canada and is not used in Britain. I have seen only “P.L.C.” and “Ltd.” for British companies.
In Germany, IIRC it’s Handelgesellschaft (with crazy capitalisations).
Germany has several, none of which is “handelgesellchaft.” The capitalisations are based on German grammar. Nouns are capitalised; other words are not.
There is –
A.G. - Aktiengesellschaft - stock corporation
e.V. - Eintragener Verein - not-for-profit corporation
G.b.R. - Gesellschaft burgerlichen Rechts - partnership without a legal name
G.m.b.H. - Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung - Company with limited liability, not publicly traded, partnerships without a legal name
G.m.b.H. & Co. K.G. - unlimited liability G.m.b.H.
K.G. - Kommanditgesellschaft - partnership under a legal name
K.G.a.A. - Kommanditgesellschaft auf Akien - limited partnership with shares
O.H.G. - Offene Handelsgesellschaft - unlimited liability partnership with a legal name
The United States has many, under various state laws –
Chtd. - Chartered
Co. - Company
Co. Inc. - Company incorporated
Corp. - Corporation
Inc. - incorporated
L.P. - limited partnership
L.L.C. - limited liability company
L.L.P. - limited liability partnership
L.L.L.P.
Ltd.
N.A. - national association
Partners
Partnership
Most large American companies are incorporation in Delaware, because of its favourable coporation law statute. This statute requires a company to have one of the following words (or any abbreviation of one of these words) in its name --association, company, corporation, club, foundation, fund, incorporated, institute, society, union, syndicate, or limited.
The Delaware statute also allows for the substitution of any word or abbreviation that serves similar purposes in other jurisdictions, so you could end up with the abbreviations used in any state or country.
Many of those have nothing to do with a corporation – they are other forms of business models.
N.A. is used only in banking, meaning the bank is under the National regulations; it’s used instead of putting “National” in the name.
Partners/partnership are just co-owners. “Company” is any business; it is not a sign the business is incorporated or not. Ltd. has no legal meaning in the U.S., though it could apply to a British corporation.
L.P., L.L.Ps etc., are specific forms of corporation under different regulations (Much like a P.C. is a professional corporation). They generally allow individuals some of the benefits of incorporation, but usually don’t sell stock.
“Corporation” and “Incorporated,” either spelled out or abbreviated, are the only designations for a true publicly traded corporation.
That’s not quite 100% correct.
It’s easiest to seperate into types that are considered a “person” by the law. These would be:
e.V.: eingetragener Verein - This is basically a club of people. The club members pay dues. The club does not have to be a non-profit organization. In fact most professional football clubs in Germany are an e.V.
GmbH: Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung - A corporation founded by several people who formed the starting capital of the company. It is considered a judicial person, so can be sued and can sue (so acsenray was wrong there). The founders are only liable for the amount they used as the starting capital. Their private capital can’t be touched in case of bankruptcy or outstanding debt.
AG: Aktiengesellschaft - A company who’s capital is based on stock. All stockholders own a part of the company. The stockholders are only liable for the value of their stock. This corporation is considered a “judicial person”.
Here are the forms that are not considered “judicial persons”:
GbR: Gesellschaft bürgerlichen Rechts - basically a group of people or companies that work together to produce or build something and are bound by a contract. To sue a GbR you have to sue each member seperately. In case of bankruptcy the entire ownings of the members can be used to pay any open debts.
OHG: Offene Handelsgesellschaft - a group of people (or companies) that have contractually agreed to work together to sell or deal in the same product(s). To sue an OHG you have to sue each member seperately. In case of bankruptcy the members are completely liable.
KG: Kommanditgesellschaft - Almost the same thing as an OHG. The main difference is that the liability of one of the members (Kommanditist) is limited to a certain sum, while another member (Komplementär) is personally liable.
GmbH & Co. KG - This is a special form of KG (Kommanditgesellschaft) where at least one of the members is a GmbH (see above).
There also used to be the forms VEB (Volkseigener Betrieb) and Kombinat (combination of several VEBs) in the former German Democratic Republic.
That concludes the first lesson of Betriebswirtschaftslehre for today 
Who said we were talking only about corporaitons?
By definition, a partnership is not a corporation.
Again, the OP asked about a “company.” No one said we were exclusively talking about “true publicly traded corporations.”
The Delaware statute apparently considers it a legitimate organizational identifier for entities organised under Delaware state law. I have seen other state statutes that give their imprimatur to “Ltd.,” although I couldn’t say off the top of my head which ones they were.
It might include the term ‘inc’ as an affectation; when used in conjunction with the simple name of the product, it implies ‘we’re the people that sell this product, and we’re serious about it’, so if I was opening a trouser shop, I might decide to name it ‘Trousers Inc.’ simply because I thought it was a punchy name (The business would probably have to be officially registered as ‘Trousers Inc PLC’ or ‘Trousers Inc Ltd’).
The only Scottish company I’ve dealt with was a “Ltd.” Looking at companies located nearby, they’re all "limited"s, too.
To the best of my knowledge:
A company listed as Limited/Ltd is one where the owners/directors have no personal liability for the company debts (i.e. Limited Liability). They must be registered with Companies House and submit accounts.
A plc is a Public Limited Company, i.e. shares are traded publicly on a stock exchange.
Details of all registered limited companies (including plcs) are available by following the WebCHeck link from the Companies House web site.
Do you have a current cite to support this? My understanding was that “many” or “a disproportionately large number of” companies were incorporated in Delaware, but certainly not over half of all large corporations. Granted, I haven’t looked at this in over ten years, but even then a number of other states were changing their laws to try and tempt some of the big corporations away from Delaware.
Delaware was a popular location for incorporation because the state was set up for it. There were laws in place (although New York was the first state to pass one, I believe) and there were courts and other government officials who were available to make things easier.
Nevada has pretty favorable incorporation laws and the taxes are very low (if not nonexistent for most people). I work at a library in California. We have books on starting corporations in California (obviously), as well as Delaware, Nevada, Florida, and New York. Other states are covered in multivolume works, but there don’t seem to be a flood of people wanting to start Montana corporations or Louisiana incorporations.
I understand all of that, BobT. I was specifically questioning acsenray’s use of the word “most” in reference to large U.S. corporations being incorporated in Delaware.
Yes, I meant “company” in its most generic sense (because I didn’t know much about the distinctions until I read the replies in this thread).
In particular I’m curious about the company BioReliance, based in Glasgow but also operating in the USA. In a document I’m editing, the name has to be as correct as possible, and “BioReliance, Inc. (Glasgow, Scotland)” looked wrong to me.