Naming a cell using VBA in excel

Assuming that the ActiveCell is on sheet "Business Units" (and that you aren't trying to set a name for the cell on sheet "Business Units" that is in the some location as the current cell on some other sheet), you can simplify your code to:

ActiveCell.Name = "BuBatch" 

Fixing the existing formula requires the removal of R1C1 reference type (as mentioned in a comment by Scott Craner) and the insertion of the ! to separate the sheet name from the address, i.e.

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add Name:="BuBatch", RefersTo:= _ "='Business Units'!" & ActiveCell.Address 

Range.Address is a parameterized property. You can peek at its definition using the Object Browser (just hit F2):

As you can see, the definition goes as follows:

Property Address([RowAbsolute], [ColumnAbsolute], [ReferenceStyle As XlReferenceStyle = xlA1], [External], [RelativeTo]) As String 

Square brackets denoting optional parameters, when you do this:

foo = ActiveCell.Address 

You're actually doing something like this:

foo = ActiveCell.Address( _ RowAbsolute:=True, _ ColumnAbsolute:=True, _ ReferenceStyle:=xlA1, _ External:=False, _ RelativeTo:=Nothing) 

Note the xlA1 value of the ReferenceStyle argument; the other possibility for it is xlR1C1.

If you want to assign RefersToR1C1, you need to supply a R1C1 address, which involves supplying a non-default value to the ReferenceStyle parameter:

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add _ Name:="BuBatch", _ RefersToR1C1:="='Business Units'!" & ActiveCell.Address(ReferenceStyle:=XlR1C1) 

Or, use the default addressing style, and assign to RefersTo instead:

ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add _ Name:="BuBatch", _ RefersTo:="='Business Units'!" & ActiveCell.Address 

I'd question the use of ActiveCell here: it implies that somewhere else in your code, you're activating that specific cell. Don't. Work with the object model instead:

Dim targetBook As Workbook Set targetBook = Application.Workbooks.Open(path) Dim target As Range Set target = targetBook.Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1") 'whatever the actual target cell is targetBook.Names.Add Name:="BuBatch", RefersTo:="='Business Units'!" & target.Address