How do I change a company's name on Wikipedia?
If your company is planning an upcoming rebrand, merger, or acquisition, you likely already have a thorough PR and communications plan prepared to announce the change and implement new messaging. This plan should involve changing your website, updating social media accounts, issuing a press release, informing journalists and partner organizations—and (you guessed it) updating Wikipedia.
Here's the thing, though: Getting Wikipedia updated is a multi-stage process, and trying to skip the steps by editing directly will likely result in Wikipedia editors reverting your changes or, worse, blocking your user account.
Here's the right way to seek Wikipedia updates and ensure information there is accurate and timely.
How to announce rebrands, mergers, and acquisitions on Wikipedia
First, do not directly edit your company article, or any Wikipedia article that mentions your company. This violates Wikipedia's guidelines for users with a conflict of interest, which ask you to disclose your conflict of interest and suggest changes on the Talk pages of articles rather than edit directly.
Instead, secure news coverage of your rebrand, merger, or acquisition. A phrase we often use here at Lumino is that "news never breaks on Wikipedia." Wikipedia will not be the first place you see your new company name reflected or merger/acquisition announced—in fact, it will probably be the last place you see the change.
This is because Wikipedia editors—the helpful volunteers who will review and implement your Talk page requests—are looking to see your new name, merger, or acquisition described in a reliable secondary source (read: not your company website or a press release). In fact, they may want to see your new name reflected in multiple secondary sources before making a change on Wikipedia.
Once you have media coverage, head back to the Talk page of your company's Wikipedia article. There, you'll make a post stating your conflict of interest and request a change. There's no specific formula for making your request—just be clear about what you'd like changed and what reliable secondary sources you have to back it up. Your request might look something like this:
Hello! I'm Alex, and I work for Z Corporation. Z Corporation's subsidiary company, referred to in this article as Z Gadgets, rebranded as Z Technologies in November 2025. Here are links to recent articles published in NBC News, Bloomberg, and Reuters that confirm this name change: [add your links here].
However you choose to present your Talk page request, it should be transparent about your conflict of interest, clear about what changes you're seeking, supported by reliable secondary sources, and respectful to the Wikipedia editor community. Following these guidelines will give you the best chance of success for having a volunteer editor review and implement your request.
That leads us to our final point: be patient. While many elements of your rebrand rollout or merger/acquisition announcement can be carried out quickly and easily, changing Wikipedia takes time—and sometimes a willingness to compromise. You must rely on the site's community of volunteer editors to review, evaluate, and hopefully implement your request. This often takes time.
Take, for example, X: the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. Twitter officially rebranded as X in July 2023. On Wikipedia, however, the Twitter Wikipedia article didn't permanently redirect to the X (social network) article until February 2026—a process that involved over 16 pages of discussion among editors over a 3-year period to reach consensus. Media coverage of the platform often used both names, and editors disagreed about whether the title of the article should reflect common colloquial usage or the platform's official name. As of July 2026, the X Wikipedia article still leads with a mention of Twitter as a commonly used name for the platform: "X, formerly and still commonly known as Twitter…"
A note on errors in your Wikipedia article: Any Wikipedia content describing your rebrand, merger, or acquisition needs to summarize what's written in reliable, secondary sources. If those news sources get your messaging wrong and an editor cites that source in your company's Wikipedia article, unfortunately, Wikipedia will reflect those errors as well.
Just like with announcing a rebrand, merger, or acquisition, correcting errors on Wikipedia requires time and patience. When you engage on the Talk page asking for a correction, you'll need to have reliable sourcing that backs up your claim.
Conclusion
Navigating the announcement of your rebrand, merger, or acquisition on Wikipedia is tricky. Lumino's team of Wikipedia experts is here to help you engage on Wikipedia ethically and effectively follow the site's rules and best practices. Want to learn more about what we do? Reach out to us at shout@luminodigital.com.