Edit the listing you have. Never create a second one
Your reviews, photos, ranking history and the trust Google has built in your listing are attached to that specific profile. Changing the name keeps all of it. Creating a new profile starts from zero and leaves a duplicate behind under the old name, which splits your signals and can get both suspended.
The change itself is a single field edit in your Business Profile. What follows it is the part worth planning for.
What happens after you change it
Expect the edit to be reviewed rather than applied instantly, and expect Google to ask you to re-verify. This is normal: a business name change is one of the edits most exploited by listing hijackers, so it gets scrutiny. Have something ready that shows the new name in use — signage, a utility bill, your Companies House record.
Expect a few weeks of unsettled rankings afterwards. Google has to re-establish that the business at this address with these reviews is now called something else, and while it does, positions can move. This settles. It is not a sign the change failed, and it is not a reason to start editing other things at the same time.
Make everything else agree, quickly
- Your website — the name in the header, the footer, the page titles and any schema markup.
- Companies House, if the registered or trading name has changed.
- Every directory you are listed in, because Google cross-checks these and disagreement slows the change down.
- Your invoices, van livery, signage and email signature, which is what customers photograph and mention in reviews.
- Social profiles, so a searcher checking you does not find two apparently different businesses.
If the domain is changing too
A name change often comes with a new domain, and that is a bigger job than the listing edit. The old site's pages need permanent redirects to their equivalents on the new domain, one to one, so the ranking history follows. Redirecting everything to the new homepage is the common shortcut and it loses most of the value.
Change the listing and the domain in the same period rather than months apart, so Google reconciles one set of changes rather than two. Then leave both alone for a few weeks.