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I'm not sure if "is" or "are" would be correct. I've written what I'm trying to say in 2 different ways; one being option A and the other being option B.

Option A: 'What is the name of the company? The name of the company is....'

Or

Option B: 'What are the name of the company? The name of the company are...'

Edwin Ashworth
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  • Partly a UK/US thing. – Hot Licks Jun 15 '18 at 12:11
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    The other way ... "Company ABC is hiring" for US but "Company ABC are hiring" for UK. In this example, "Company ABC" is the subject. In your example, "Name" is the subject, so on both sides of the Atlantic we use "is". – GEdgar Jun 15 '18 at 12:18
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    'Name' takes singular agreement. But this question is off-topic on ELU, Ben. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 15 '18 at 18:36

2 Answers2

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Neither of those two options.

Option C) What is the name of the company?

You have to use "is" because an specific company got a single name.

According to Cambridge Dictionary

who

used especially in questions as the subject or object of a verb, when asking which person or people, or when asking what someone's name is

A company is not a person is a construct. A something, not a someone.

what

used to ask for information about people or things

Community
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RubioRic
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    I think "name of company" is being used in the original post as a placeholder for the actual name of a company, not as the literal phrase "the name of the company". I.e. the question is asking about sentences like "Who is/are Stack Exchange?" – herisson Jun 15 '18 at 15:45
  • @sumelic I got your point. Then it's a duplicated one as jejorda2 pointed – RubioRic Jun 15 '18 at 16:17
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If you swap out company for business, you wouldn't say The business are. That seems wrong, but the business is makes more sense. So the company is seems to be the preferred when I think about it.

choster
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TattooedJoey
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  • I agree. If the OP's sentences are the beginning of a paragraph or statement, they should be "What is the name of the company? The name of the company is...." Suppose the company referred to is "General Eccentric". You could write "The name of the company is General Eccentric" (with The before name), or "General Eccentric is the name of the company" (with no the before the actual name). – tautophile Jun 15 '18 at 15:44