Although the new rules unleashed a tongue-in-cheek online hunt in China for other potential violators, they address a broader and particularly vexing problem for stodgy Chinese officialdom: keeping up with China’s exuberant — and sometimes reckless — entrepreneurs. That means centralizing and streamlining a system that had permitted misleading, repetitive or just plain long-winded company names.

In the nearly four decades since China began to loosen its controls on private enterprise and allow foreign money into the country, the government has struggled to manage the freewheeling results. As the world’s No. 2 economy, behind the United States, it is in the unusual position of being an authoritarian state that sometimes has no idea what its businesses are up to.

Many industries sprang up in China with little government instigation. But entrepreneurs often went to excesses. The country quickly filled up with factories that often left environmental messes. Some cutting-edge ventures failed spectacularly. As China’s economy has matured, its officials have increasingly talked about improving regulation and enforcement, and better protecting trademarks and patents.

Company names are an example of the problem, writ small.

Two years ago, a Chinese property company renamed itself P2P Financial Information Service Company Ltd., which made the business sound as if it were involved in the then-popular type of online borrowing called peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending. Its shares soared before regulators cracked down.

Other corporate names have drawn headlines over the years because, with just one or two shifts in tone, they sound like invitations to have sex. The country is also awash in copycat names, or those trying to cash in on a popular trend.