Choosing Your Business Name in Luxembourg (2026)

Your business name is the decision that conditions everything else: domain, email, brand, Google ranking, client perception. Yet it’s often taken in five minutes over coffee. Six months later, you discover the .lu isn’t available, the brand is already registered by a competitor, or the name doesn’t pronounce in German.

This guide lays out the complete method to choose and secure your business name in Luxembourg in 2026. Five mandatory checks, in the right order, before any registration.

Choosing your business name: the quick definition

A good business name in Luxembourg ticks five boxes: it’s available at the RCS (Luxembourg Business Registers), it has its .lu domain free, it doesn’t infringe on a trademark registered at BOIP, it pronounces in French, English and German, and it’s memorable. If one box is unticked, the decision is reopened.

The order of checks is not negotiable:

1. Benelux trademark (BOIP)
2. RCS availability (LBR)
3. .lu domain (Fondation Restena via dns.lu)
4. Social handles (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook)
5. Multilingual phonetic test

Skip a step and you risk redoing everything in six months.

Verifying RCS availability via LBR

Luxembourg Business Registers (LBR) holds the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register (RCS). It’s where all businesses headquartered in Luxembourg are registered.

Verification procedure:

• Go to lbr.lu, access the company search
• Type your desired name in the “Denomination” field
• Verify no active company already holds this name (or a confusing variation)
• Extend the search to variants: plural, abbreviations, common spelling mistakes

According to lbr.lu, two companies cannot share an identical or too-similar denomination. If the name exists — even in a dormant or recently-liquidated company — LBR will reject your registration.

The search is free and instant. Do it before any other commitment (logo, business cards, site, BOIP filing). It’s the easiest step to skip, and the most expensive to discover too late.

Checking Benelux trademark availability at BOIP

The Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) manages trademarks for Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. A BOIP-registered trademark covers all three countries simultaneously.

Verification procedure:

• Go to boip.int, access the trademark search
• Type your name and check active trademarks in your Nice class (international classification grouping trademarks by sector)
• Verify earlier trademarks that could cause confusion

According to boip.int, a registered trademark grants its owner a commercial monopoly. You can have an identical RCS name if the sectors are totally different, but you can’t commercially use a name close to a registered trademark in the same class.

Filing a BOIP trademark has a moderate cost and gives three-country protection for ten years, renewable. For an SME investing in a name and a website, it’s rarely a luxury — it’s insurance.

Verifying .lu domain availability

The .lu is managed by the Fondation Restena, a Luxembourg non-profit. Free and instant check via dns.lu (WHOIS search page).

Procedure:

• Go to dns.lu/en/check
• Type your desired name (no accents, lowercase)
• Verify the domain is free

If the domain is taken, two options: change the name (recommended if the take is recent and active), or attempt a buyback negotiation (variable cost, often high for attractive names).

⚠️ Check in parallel the critical variants: .com, .eu, .net, and the closest spelling variation (common typo). A competitor buying a variant to intercept your visitors is a rare but real scenario.

Once free, reserve immediately. Annual .lu cost is low, and the risk of a third party taking it while you decide on a logo is concrete.

Verifying social handles

LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok each have their own handle logic. Before locking in the name, check that @your-name is available on platforms you’ll actually use.

For a Luxembourg B2B SME: LinkedIn company page + Facebook are the minimums. For a B2C SME: add Instagram and TikTok. For a tech SME: X and GitHub if applicable.

If a critical handle is taken, options are:

• Choose an acceptable variation (@name-luxembourg, @nameofficial)
• Contact the occupant if they’ve been inactive for a long time
• Change the name if the unavailable handle is a strong conflict signal elsewhere

Multilingual phonetic test: essential in Luxembourg

A name that doesn’t pronounce in German or Luxembourgish is handicapped on 30 to 40% of the market. Three quick tests:

• German: does a German from Trier pronounce your name correctly on first read?
• English: does an English-speaking expat pronounce your name without hesitation?
• Luxembourgish: does a Luxembourger recognise your name pronounced by a French speaker?

Common pitfalls: accents that disappear (German has no ç), gn and ch that pronounce differently across languages, French first names becoming unrecognisable.

Simple trick: read your name to three people you don’t know well, one from each linguistic community. If any hesitates, ask yourself if the name passes.

Linguistic rules in Luxembourg

Luxembourg doesn’t impose a mandatory language for business names — you can choose French, German, English, Luxembourgish or an invented name. But according to guichet.public.lu, certain rules apply:

• The name can’t mislead about the activity (e.g., “Pharmacie X SARL” when you’re not a pharmacist)
• It can’t contain certain regulated words (bank, insurance, notary) without authorisation
• The legal form (SARL, SARL-s, SA, SCS, SCSp) must appear in the official RCS denomination

For the commercial name (the one used day to day, on the site, in communication), liberty is greater. But align the two as much as possible — Google associates your signals more easily when name, legalName and commercial name are close.

SEO: choosing a name that ranks on Google

A short, pronounceable, unique name ranks more easily than a long, generic or ambiguous name. Three SEO criteria:

• Unique on Google: if “Slash Luxembourg” already returns 50,000 existing results, you start at a disadvantage
• No direct competitor on the main query: if Google’s first page is saturated with agencies for “Digital Solutions Luxembourg”, avoid
• Memorable: a visitor who wants to return must be able to retype your name without hesitation

According to support.google.com, the commercial name is one of the three primary signals Google uses to link a site to an official entity (along with domain and Organization structured data). See our article Rank first on Google for your company name.

The INNOVALUX SARL-s case is typical: unique name, coherent .lu, Benelux trademark filed, knowledge panel generated in three weeks. That’s what a good upstream decision makes possible.

Frequently asked questions

How to check if a business name is available in Luxembourg?

Three free parallel checks: RCS search on lbr.lu (LBR), trademark search on boip.int (BOIP), domain check on dns.lu (Fondation Restena). If all three are free, you can proceed.

Do I need to file a trademark for my business name in Luxembourg?

Not legally mandatory to exist at RCS. But strongly recommended once the name has commercial value (active website, clients, communication). Without filing, a third party can commercially use a similar name in the same Nice class. BOIP filing covers Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands for ten years, renewable.

Can two companies share the same name in Luxembourg?

No at the RCS — two companies can’t share an identical or too-similar official denomination. LBR rejects in case of conflict. The commercial name (different from the official denomination) can partly overlap with others if sectors differ.

Can my business name be in English in Luxembourg?

Yes, without restriction. Luxembourg accepts French, German, English, Luxembourgish or an invented name. The legal form (SARL, SA, SARL-s, SCS, SCSp) must however appear at RCS.

How long to reserve a name in Luxembourg?

RCS search via lbr.lu: instant and free. BOIP trademark search: instant and free. BOIP trademark filing: 5 to 8 months until official publication. .lu domain registration: instant. RCS company creation: 2 to 4 weeks depending on legal form.

If I change my business name later, what do I lose?

You lose SEO equity on the old name (30 to 60% of organic traffic over 6 months, followed by recovery), your Google knowledge panel if you had one (3 to 6 months to rebuild), recognition with old clients (to be compensated by active communication), and admin costs at RCS, BOIP and registrar. Better to choose well from the start.

Further reading

• Rank first on Google for your company name — the logical follow-up once the name is chosen
• Starting a business in Luxembourg: 10-day digital checklist — the calendar of concrete actions
• Professional email in Luxembourg: credibility and setup — the step that follows domain registration

Official external sources: Luxembourg Business Registers (LBR), Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP), Fondation Restena — dns.lu, guichet.public.lu — start a business.

What we do at Slash.lu

At Slash.lu, we help you validate your name beyond brainstorming: systematic RCS + BOIP + .lu + social + phonetic test before you invest in logo and communication. One contact from start to finish — not an intermediary who sends you to five other providers.

Have a specific project in mind? Request a quote. We'll look together at where you stand.

→ To go further: our web design service .