Care e preţul numelui tău?
What is the price of your name?

Summary/Abstract: Legal scholars and judicial practice are unanimous in assigning the right to name regulated by the Civil Code the legal features of a non-patrimonial subjective right: it is an absolute, inalienable, unseizable right, that one cannot exercise by representation, and cannot lose due to non-use, nor acquire through possession. This legal regime is due to the ratio given to the right to name by the Civil Code, namely the social identification and the protection of the integrity of its holder’s person. According to the ECHR case law, the name is also an element of someone’s right to private life: we have the right to develop relationships with our fellows, by using our name in the professional activity. Law no. 26/1990 expressly regulates the cases in which the name may be included in the company’s denomination. The principles of inalienability and of not losing entitlement to claim governing the right to name do not prohibit the signing of agreements concerning the use of name as denomination of a company (or as trademark). But, from a legal viewpoint, trade name is an incorporeal asset, an element of the companies’ goodwill. Will the name (patronym) that has been included in the denomination of a company follow the regime of a shareholder’s non-patrimonial right or that of an incorporeal asset? On the basis of the relevant legislation and case law, the author of this paper shall essentially attempt to answer this question, in the following terms: will the name included in the denomination of a company retain its original legal status and regime or, once it has embraced a new role, they will change too, in their turn?

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