CenturyTel Inc., the company that bought Embarq Corp. last year and soon will own Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q), is legally changing its name to CenturyLink Inc. (CTL)

The Louisiana-based ILEC has been operating under the CenturyLink brand since taking over Embarq but the change wasn’t official until Thursday. That’s when shareholders approved the new name.

CenturyLink will continue to trade under the “CTL” stock ticker.

Now that the name change is out of the way, CenturyLink can focus on its pending $22.4 billion acquisition of Denver-headquartered Qwest. The all-stock deal was announced about a month ago. The pair will reportedly have 18 million phone lines across the country; however, that number is still small compared to Verizon and AT&T.

Shares of CenturyLink were trading 5 cents higher in early afternoon activity on Friday, at $32.98.