Certificate of name change in France – official record
A certificate of change of name / merger in France records a company's former name, its current name and the date of change, drawn from the corporate register. A correctly issued copy can still be refused abroad without the right apostille or translation. REGISTRUM confirms the issuing route and fee against the primary source before any order is accepted.
What this document shows
The Certificate of Change of Name / Merger is a corporate-register extract for a France entity. Where the record is confirmed available, it is expected to carry: former company name, current company name, effective date of the change or merger, registration number, legal form, registered office address. Availability and exact field content for this document in France are being confirmed against the primary source; this page states the general shape of the record rather than a fixed field list.
A name change entry follows an underlying corporate event – a shareholder resolution, a merger deed, a court order – recorded on the register at a given date. The certificate itself does not reproduce that underlying event; it states only that the register holds a name change or merger entry and the date on which it took effect. Some registers issue the certificate as a standalone extract, others fold it into a wider company extract that also carries directors, share capital and registered office. Which format applies for France entities is part of the route confirmation REGISTRUM carries out before an order is accepted. Confirmation comes first.
Compliance teams and law firms typically request this certificate when a counterparty in France has traded under more than one name, or where a merger has absorbed one entity into another and a file needs to show the link between the two names. The certificate is a factual record of that link at the level of the register – not a corporate history and not a statement about which contracts, licences or liabilities transferred as part of the change. Where the entity has changed name more than once, a single certificate normally covers the most recent change only; earlier changes may require a separate extract or a fuller company history document.
As a France certificate of name change, this record sits alongside other France company documents such as a full company extract or articles of association, each covering a different slice of the corporate file.
What it does not show
The certificate does not show why the name changed or merger occurred – the underlying resolution, deed or court order sits in a separate corporate file, and access to that file for a foreign applicant in France is not confirmed as open without further verification.
It does not show whether contracts, licences, tax registrations or litigation carried over from the former name to the current one; that sits with the entity's own records and with any register tracking the specific licence or contract, not with the corporate register.
It does not show beneficial ownership, share capital movements around the change, or directors appointed or removed at the same time – each sits in a separate register entry, and whether that entry is open, restricted or closed to a foreign applicant in France is being confirmed against the primary source.
The certificate also does not carry an apostille or legalisation stamp by default; where a receiving authority abroad requires one, it is added as a separate step and does not come from the corporate register itself.
Whether the France register indexes entries under the current legal name only, or also under former trading names, affects whether a search by an old name returns the current file; this indexing behaviour is confirmed as part of the route check, not assumed from the document type alone.
Where the entity later changed name again, this certificate does not show that later change; a request dated to the actual need avoids ordering a document that already understates the current position.
How it is obtained
The issuing authority for this certificate, the official fee and the access regime for foreign applicants are being confirmed against the primary source for France; at the time of writing these remain unverified and are not stated here as a confirmed figure.
Language of issue is French. Whether an English-language certificate or a bilingual extract is available for this specific document is part of the same confirmation, as is whether the document is issued as a certified France extract or as an uncertified printout.
Whether a foreign applicant can request the certificate directly, or whether the route runs through a licensed registered agent in the jurisdiction, is also under confirmation. Where a local representative, a national identifier or a local electronic signature is required, REGISTRUM states this before an order is placed rather than after payment.
Where the document is needed for use outside France, an apostille or consular legalisation is arranged as a separate step once the base certificate is confirmed available; this addition follows the destination country's own requirement rather than a fixed rule attached to the certificate itself. A certified translation is treated the same way: added on request, priced and timed separately from the base document, and matched to the wording the receiving authority has specified.
REGISTRUM's role in this route is limited to confirming availability, arranging issue through the correct channel and passing on the authority's own terms; REGISTRUM does not assess whether the certificate, once obtained, will satisfy a particular receiving authority abroad. Confirmation of the fee, the authority and the regime is carried out before payment is requested, in line with the check applied to every jurisdiction in this family.
Reuse of the certificate once issued is limited to the document itself: the record may be used for the purpose it was obtained for, and redistribution or republication of its content beyond that use is not part of the terms under which it is supplied.
Price and timeline
The fee for this certificate is confirmed against the primary source before an order is accepted; a figure that has not been verified for France is not quoted here. Turnaround is set out once the route is confirmed. Add-ons available for this document are apostille, certified translation, courier delivery and a rush service, each adding its own time to the base order.
If the document does not exist in this jurisdiction or cannot be obtained for you, we say so before you pay and we do not take the order.
How long does a certificate of change of name / merger from France take?
Turnaround for this certificate is confirmed once the issuing route for France is verified; it is not stated here as a fixed figure ahead of that check. REGISTRUM confirms the expected timescale, together with the fee and the authority, before an order is accepted, so the delivery date is known before payment rather than after.
Will a France document be accepted abroad without an apostille?
Acceptance abroad is decided by the receiving authority, not by REGISTRUM. Where that authority asks for an apostille or a certified translation, the base certificate on its own is unlikely to satisfy the request. Apostille and certified translation are available as add-ons, arranged once the destination's requirement is known, rather than attached by default to every order.
What does a certificate of change of name / merger in France not show?
It does not show the reason for the change – the underlying resolution, deed or court order – nor whether contracts, licences or registrations carried over to the current name. Beneficial ownership and share capital movements sit in separate register entries. Whether those entries are open, restricted or closed to a foreign applicant in France is confirmed separately from this document.
Can I order this certificate if the company has changed its name more than once?
A single certificate normally reflects the most recent change on record. Where an entity has changed name several times, an earlier change is not automatically shown on the same document; a fuller company history extract or a separate certificate for the earlier period may be needed, and REGISTRUM confirms which document covers the period you need before ordering.
Is the certified translation included in the price, or ordered separately?
A certified translation is an add-on, not part of the base certificate. It is priced and timed separately, matched to the wording a receiving authority has specified, and added to the order once that wording is confirmed rather than supplied as a generic translation by default. This keeps the wording aligned to what the destination actually asks for, rather than a standard form that may not match.
To order this certificate, state the entity, the jurisdiction and the date you need it by; REGISTRUM confirms availability and the fee before you pay. For the wider document type across jurisdictions, see the certificate of change of name overview.
REGISTRUM obtains and delivers official records issued by public registers and licensed registered agents. This page describes what those records contain and how they are obtained. It is not advice on the legal effect of any record. To order, write to info@registrumfirm.com.