Bucharest · company register, 19 October 2026
What new Bucharest companies were called, year by year: from IMPEX to SOLUTIONS
In 1992, 30,460 new limited companies (SRLs) were registered in Bucharest and 34 in 100 had the word IMPEX in the name. In 2026 it is 3 in 1,000. CONSULTING, DESIGN and SOLUTIONS rose and fell around it. Pick a year, type a name, and the firm gets the words that mattered then.
34 in 100 had IMPEX in the name
The name is invented: words from the names of that year's new companies, combined at random, roughly in the proportions they appear in. Any match with an existing company would be coincidence. The block of flats and the street are drawings: double glazing, air conditioners, satellite dishes and cars change as the years pass, but nothing in the drawing comes from the data.
#Which words new companies had in their names, each year
Each bar shows how many of 100 new companies in the chosen year had the word in the name. A name usually has several words, so the percentages do not add up to 100. The table below puts five years side by side.
| Year | The words, with their share |
|---|---|
| 1992 | IMPEX 34.1% · COM 12.4% · IMPORT 8.1% · EXPORT 8.1% · PROD 5.4% · TRADING 3.8% · EXIM 2.7% · SERVICE 2.4% |
| 2000 | IMPEX 10.4% · INTERNATIONAL 6.7% · COM 5.8% · TRADING 2.7% · COMPANY 2.4% · STAR 2.0% · GROUP 1.9% · CONSTRUCT 1.9% |
| 2008 | CONSTRUCT 5.7% · CONSULTING 4.3% · INVEST 2.6% · DESIGN 2.3% · INTERNATIONAL 2.2% · BUSINESS 2.0% · IMPEX 1.9% · EXPERT 1.8% |
| 2016 | CONSTRUCT 2.9% · CONSULTING 2.8% · SOLUTIONS 2.6% · SERVICES 2.4% · CONCEPT 2.3% · DESIGN 2.2% · BUSINESS 2.2% · EXPERT 1.6% |
| 2024 | SOLUTIONS 3.3% · CONSTRUCT 2.7% · CONSULTING 2.0% · CONCEPT 1.6% · SERVICES 1.4% · BUSINESS 1.4% · GROUP 1.3% · DESIGN 1.1% |
#Words that rose and words that vanished
Pick words from the list. The vertical line follows the year chosen above, and a tap on the chart changes the year.
IMPEX appeared in 34.1% of the names of companies registered in 1992. Counting the words that contain it (COMIMPEX, PRODIMPEX) lifts the share to 40.6%. In 2000 it was 10.4%, in 2026 it is 0.3%. COM followed a similar curve, peaking in 1995 (15.5%) and standing at 0.2% in 2026. The next wave was CONSULTING, peaking in 2004 (6.3%). SOLUTIONS reached its maximum in 2024, at 3.3%, yet in 2026 CONSTRUCT (3.6%) is still ahead of it (2.5%). HUB and AI are only starting: 0.8% and 0.4% of the companies registered in 2026.
#What became of the companies of each year
The register keeps struck-off companies too. Of those registered in 1992, 88% are now struck off; of those from 2010, 36.9%; from 2020, 23.9%. So the count above includes companies that no longer exist, not only the ones that survived.
#How the count was made
The data come from the company register, published by the National Trade Register Office (ONRC) on data.gov.ro, in the version of 19 October 2026 (licence CC BY 4.0). The count covers limited companies (SRL) whose current registered seat is in Bucharest and that were registered from 1991 on: 639,449. The year is the year of registration, and 2026 runs to 19 October. Only 7 SRLs date from 1990 and they are left out.
The name is today's name: a company renamed after it was founded appears under the new one. The seat is today's seat: companies that moved out of Bucharest to another county are missing. Companies that moved in from another county may carry the year they entered the Bucharest register, so a small part of each year may be older firms.
A word counts when it stands alone in the name, without diacritics and without "SRL" or "SC". Upper and lower case make no difference. IMPEX in "X IMPEX" counts, IMPEX inside "COMIMPEX" does not; those enter only the figure "also inside longer words".
The data show which names firms registered in each year carried, not why those names were chosen. Explanations, for example what import-export trade meant after 1990, need other sources and are not attempted here.
In the toy, the names are invented: words are drawn from the 134 tracked ones, roughly in the proportion they were used in the chosen year, smoothed over neighbouring years. The signs are illustrations in the style of the period. The neighbouring shops in the drawing get invented names the same way, one from the chosen year and the other from seven years earlier; in 1991–1993 the shop on the left is shuttered, without a sign. No real company name is published; a match with an existing one would be chance.
The same database also stands behind the page on the Bucureștii Noi flat that is the seat of almost 26,000 businesses.
#Sources
- "Companies registered at the Trade Register until 19.10.2026", National Trade Register Office (ONRC), on data.gov.ro, tables OD_FIRME and OD_STARE_FIRMA. Licence CC BY 4.0. Processed: words in the names were counted by year and legal form; real company names are not published.
Page by Marius Comper, published 28 October 2026.