diff --git a/R/utils.R b/R/utils.R
deleted file mode 100644
index 6d95ff1e1..000000000
--- a/R/utils.R
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,45 +0,0 @@
-#' Whether the variable name is good to use within Show R Code
-#'
-#' Spaces are problematic because the variables must be escaped
-#' with backticks.
-#' Also, they should not start with a number as R may silently make
-#' it valid by changing it.
-#' Therefore, we only allow alphanumeric characters with underscores.
-#' The first character of the `name` must be an alphabetic character
-#' and can be followed by alphanumeric characters.
-#'
-#' @md
-#'
-#' @param name `character, single or vector` name to check
-#' @keywords internal
-#'
-#' @examples
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("aas2df")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSLmodified")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL_2")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("a1")
-#' # the following fail
-#' \dontrun{
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("1a")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL.modified")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL_modified")
-#' teal.data:::check_simple_name("a1...")
-#' }
-check_simple_name <- function(name) {
-  checkmate::assert_character(name, min.len = 1, any.missing = FALSE)
-  if (!grepl("^[[:alpha:]][a-zA-Z0-9_]*$", name, perl = TRUE)) {
-    checkmate::makeAssertion(
-      name,
-      paste0(
-        "'",
-        name,
-        "' ",
-        "must only contain alphanumeric characters (with underscores)",
-        " and the first character must be an alphabetic character"
-      ),
-      var.name = "name",
-      NULL
-    )
-  }
-}
diff --git a/man/check_simple_name.Rd b/man/check_simple_name.Rd
deleted file mode 100644
index d622b8aaf..000000000
--- a/man/check_simple_name.Rd
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
-% Please edit documentation in R/utils.R
-\name{check_simple_name}
-\alias{check_simple_name}
-\title{Whether the variable name is good to use within Show R Code}
-\usage{
-check_simple_name(name)
-}
-\arguments{
-\item{name}{\verb{character, single or vector} name to check}
-}
-\description{
-Spaces are problematic because the variables must be escaped
-with backticks.
-Also, they should not start with a number as R may silently make
-it valid by changing it.
-Therefore, we only allow alphanumeric characters with underscores.
-The first character of the \code{name} must be an alphabetic character
-and can be followed by alphanumeric characters.
-}
-\examples{
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("aas2df")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSLmodified")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL_2")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("a1")
-# the following fail
-\dontrun{
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("1a")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL.modified")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("ADSL_modified")
-teal.data:::check_simple_name("a1...")
-}
-}
-\keyword{internal}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-check_simple_name.R b/tests/testthat/test-check_simple_name.R
deleted file mode 100644
index 693c37139..000000000
--- a/tests/testthat/test-check_simple_name.R
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,19 +0,0 @@
-test_that("check_simple_name behaves as expected", {
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("aas2df"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSL"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSLmodified"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("a1"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSL_modified"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSL_filtered"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("FILTERED_ADSL"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("FILTERED"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSLFILTERED"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("a_1_2_b_"))
-  expect_silent(check_simple_name("ADSL_FILTERED"))
-
-  expect_error(check_simple_name("1a"))
-  expect_error(check_simple_name("ADSL.modified"))
-  expect_error(check_simple_name("a1..."))
-  expect_error(check_simple_name("a a"))
-  expect_error(check_simple_name("_A_b"))
-})