If your Google Business Profile name repeats your shop's name in both English and French, or pairs it with the same name in a second script, Google now says that is not allowed. The guideline changed quietly in August 2026, and the justification most owners relied on, that the sign above the door reads exactly that way, no longer works.
What actually changed
Google's Guidelines for representing your business on Google now list "Repeated Bilingual Names / Script Transliterations" among the things a business name must not contain, described as "Repeating the same business name in multiple scripts or languages, even if it appears this way on physical storefront signage" (sourced from Google). The two examples Google gives of what is now unacceptable are "Kafiex / カフィエクス" and "Burger King バーガーキング".
The change was first reported on 10 August 2026 (sourced from Search Engine Roundtable). Google did not announce it separately. It was added to the guidelines page, which is how most name rules arrive.
What the rule covers, and what it does not
Read it narrowly, because it is narrow.
It covers repetition. The same name, twice, in two scripts or two languages.
It does not cover a genuinely bilingual name. If your real-world name is one name that happens to contain words from two languages, that is your name.
It does not require you to translate anything. Nothing here forces you into English.
It does not touch anything but the name field. Your description, services, posts and website are unaffected.
The underlying standard has not moved either. Your profile name must "reflect your business's real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers" (sourced from Google). The new line just closes a door that used to be propped open with a photograph of the shopfront.
Why this one lands harder in Canada
Bilingual and multi-script names are ordinary here. A restaurant in Montreal or Moncton running its name in French and English. A grocer in Richmond, Surrey, Markham or northeast Calgary running it in English alongside Chinese, Korean, Punjabi, Arabic or Persian. Nobody put those names up to game a ranking. They put them up because that is what the business is called, to the people who walk in.
So a rule written to stop keyword stuffing now catches a lot of businesses that were not doing anything of the kind. That is worth knowing before you take it personally.
Keep the platform rule and the language law separate
This is the part that causes the most confusion in Quebec, so it is worth stating flatly: these are two different systems and neither one overrides the other.
Under the Charter of the French language, since 1 June 2025 a non-French trademark visible from outside a business must be accompanied by French descriptive text that is markedly predominant, with at least twice as much space given to the French (sourced from CFIB). That governs your physical sign. It has nothing to say about the name field in your Google Business Profile.
Google's rule governs the name field. It has nothing to say about your sign. Comply with both, separately, and do not let anyone tell you that one excuses you from the other. This is marketing guidance, not legal advice, so confirm your signage obligations with the Office quebecois de la langue francaise or your own counsel.
Choosing which version to keep
One test, and it is Google's own: which version is on your invoices, your website header and your stationery, and which one do customers say on the phone? Keep that one.
Not the longer one. Not the one with more search terms in it. If two versions are genuinely used by two different customer groups, default to the one matching your legal registration, because that is the version you can evidence if you are ever asked to.
Where the second language still belongs
Losing it from the name field is not losing it. Google still gives you several places where a second language earns more than it ever did sitting after a slash:
The business description, where you have room for a real sentence.
Service and product names.
Posts, which is the natural home for anything seasonal.
Review replies. Reply in whichever language the reviewer used.
Your website. A genuine page in that language does more for you than a duplicated profile name ever did.
If you have not touched any of those fields in a while, that is its own problem, and a profile nobody updates quietly stops being shown. Fixing the name is a good excuse to go through the rest of it against the profile checklist.
A rejected edit is not a suspension
These get confused constantly and they are not the same event. A rejected name edit means your change does not publish and your profile stays live. A suspension means the profile comes off Maps and Search entirely.
The recourse differs by region, and Canada is on the thinner side of that line. Google states that "Appeals are handled differently for businesses located or operating within the UK or European Economic Area (EEA)" (sourced from Google). Inside the UK and EEA the appeals tool covers suspended or disabled profiles, rejected business information edits and media restrictions. Outside them, which includes Canada, the tool covers suspended or disabled profiles only, and a rejected edit means contacting support directly. Google says appeal reviews and decisions can take up to 5 business days.
Nobody can promise you a particular outcome from an appeal, and any agency that does is selling you something Google has never offered. What can be worked on is everything either side of it, the profile itself and the pages behind it, which is the ongoing local search and content work rather than a one-off fix.
What to do this week
Open your profile and read the name field exactly as it appears, character for character.
If it repeats in two scripts or two languages, decide which version is the real-world name.
Change it once. Do not edit five other fields the same day, because a burst of simultaneous edits is a known trigger for a review.
Move the second language into the description, the services and a page on your site.
If the edit is rejected, contact support rather than resubmitting the same change repeatedly.
The rule is narrow, the fix takes about ten minutes, and the downside of ignoring it is a name edit that will not publish or a profile that goes quiet at the worst possible moment. So: which version of your name is the real one?