Changing Your Name
To make sure people know who they're connecting with, we ask everyone to use the same name on Facebook that they use in everyday life. We may ask you to confirm that the name on your Facebook account is the name you're known by.
To change your name on Facebook:
- Review our name standards
- Click
in the top right of Facebook and select Settings - Click Name
- Enter your name and click Review Change
- Enter your password and click Save Changes
If you're having trouble changing your name, please let us know. Keep in mind, you can only change your name every 60 days.
Facebook is a community where everyone uses the name they go by in everyday life. This makes it so that you always know who you're connecting with and helps keep our community safe.
Your name can't include:
- Symbols, numbers, unusual capitalization, repeating characters or punctuation
- Characters from multiple languages
- Titles of any kind (ex: professional, religious)
- Words or phrases in place of a name
- Offensive or suggestive words of any kind
If your name follows our standards and you're still having trouble changing it, find out why.
Other things to keep in mind:
- The name on your profile should be the name that your friends call you in everyday life. This name should also appear on an ID or document from our ID list.
- Nicknames can be used as a first or middle name if they're a variation of your authentic name (like Bob instead of Robert).
- You can also list another name on your account (ex: maiden name, nickname, professional name).
- Profiles are for individual use only. You can create a Page for a business, organization or idea.
- Pretending to be anything or anyone isn't allowed.
You should use whichever first and last name you most identify with and use in everyday life. If you're asked to upload documents to confirm your name, you have a few options.
Learn more about the different types of documents you can use.
Keep in mind that you can only change the name on your Facebook account once every 60 days. You can also add additional names (ex: nicknames, titles, professional names) to your profile.
Right now, language-specific names are only available in a few countries.
A language-specific name is the name that you used to sign up for Facebook, translated into another language. If someone uses Facebook in the same language as your language-specific name, they'll see your language-specific name in your profile, search results, posts, comments and photo tags. You'll also see your language-specific name if you use Facebook in that language. Here are some examples of language-specific names:
| Name Used at Sign-Up | Language-Specific Name |
|---|---|
| Hanako Yamada | 山田花子 |
| Chen WeiJie | 陳偉傑 |
| Young Hee Kim | 김영희 |
| Marina Petrova | Марина Петрова |
To add or edit your language-specific name:
- Click in the top right and select Settings
- Click the Name section
- Click add or change your language-specific name
- Enter your name as it appears in another language in the language-specific name fields
- Enter your Password and click Save Changes
To delete your language-specific name:
- Complete steps 1-3 above
- Delete your language-specific name
- Enter your Password and click Save Changes
If you're having trouble adding your language-specific name, it might be because the name you requested doesn't follow our name standards. Keep in mind that the language-specific name should be your authentic name in that language as it would be listed on your credit card or student ID. If you've read our name policies and think that your name was rejected by mistake, let us know.
Both forms require you to include both a first and a last name. If you only have one name, you can enter the same name for both New first name and New last name to submit your request. Once we receive your request we'll work with you to place the mononym on your account.
If you need to confirm your name on Facebook, or if you've lost access to your account, you may be asked to send us a copy of something with your name on it. You have several different options for this, including photo IDs issued by the government, IDs from non-government organizations, official certificates or licenses that include your name or other physical items like a magazine subscription or a piece of mail.
Any time you send us something that confirms your name or identity, please cover up any personal information we don't need to see (ex: credit card number, Social Security number). Also keep in mind that we encrypt everyone's connection to Facebook by default and delete anything that you've sent to us after we've confirmed your name or identity.
Learn more about how Facebook protects the privacy and security of your information when you submit an ID.
Group One
You can send us one of the items from group one to confirm your name or get back into your account. Anything that you send us should contain either your name and date of birth or your name and photo.
- Birth certificate
- Driver's license
- Passport
- Marriage certificate
- Official name change paperwork
- Personal or vehicle insurance card
- Non-driver's government ID (ex: disability, SNAP card, national ID card, pension card)
- Green card, residence permit or immigration papers
- Tribal identification or status card
- Voter ID card
- Family certificate
- Visa
- National age card
- Immigration registration card
- Tax identification card
Group Two
If you don't have anything from group one, you can send us two different items from group two. The name on the items that you send us should be the same name that you want to show on your profile.
Keep in mind that if you've lost access to your account, you may be asked to provide something from the list that also shows a photo or date of birth that matches the details on your Facebook account. This extra precaution is so that we can make sure that the only one with access to your account is you.
- Bank statement
- Transit card
- Check
- Credit card
- Employment verification
- Library card
- Magazine subscription stub
- Medical record
- Membership ID (ex: pension card, union membership, work ID, professional ID)
- Paycheck stub
- Permit
- School ID card
- School record
- Social Security card
- Utility bill
- Yearbook photo (actual scan or photograph of the page in your yearbook)
- Company loyalty card
- Contract
- Family registry
- Diploma
- Religious documents
- Certificate of registration for accreditation or professional
- Professional license card
- Polling card
- Health insurance
- Address proof card
- Social welfare card
Facebook is a community where everyone uses the name they go by in everyday life. This makes it so that you always know who you're connecting with and helps keep our community safe.
If the name that you use in everyday life isn't listed on your profile, please update it. If you're unable to update it, you can learn more about what to do if you can't change your name.
Your name on Facebook can't include:
- Symbols, numbers, unusual capitalization, repeating characters or punctuation
- Characters from multiple languages
- Titles of any kind (ex: professional, religious)
- Words or phrases in place of a name
- Offensive or suggestive words of any kind
- Unusual spacing or splitting of names
- Characters from multiple languages
- Joint or multiple names on the same profile
- Unusual punctuation, such as apostrophes, within a name
- Names with vowels removed
- Repeated names
- Unusual capitalization
- Extra accent marks
Other things to keep in mind:
- The name on your profile should be the same name that your friends call you in everyday life. This name should also appear on at least one item from our ID list.
- Nicknames can be used as a first or middle name if they're a variation of your first name (like Mike instead of Michael).
- While Facebook requires that you use your full last name, you can use your first and middle initials (like P.T. Barnum instead of Phineas Tyler Barnum).
- You can also list another name on your account (ex: maiden name, nickname, professional name).
- Profiles are for individual use, and should display the name of a single person. If you want to display the name of a business, organization or idea, you can create a Facebook Page.
- Pretending to be anything or anyone other than yourself on a Facebook profile isn't allowed.
Note: If you want to limit the audience who sees the name you go by in everyday life on your Facebook Profile, you can adjust your Privacy settings. To do this, visit your Privacy Settings to see who can look you up and contact you.
If you'd like to list a name on your account that's different from the name on your ID (ex: maiden name, nickname, professional title):
- Go to your profile and click About
- Click Details About You
- Click Add a nickname, a birth name... below Other Names
- Select the type of name you want to add next to Name Type
- Enter your other name
- Check Show at top of profile to have your other name shown next to your full name at the top of your profile
- Click Save
Learn more about our other name policies.
Keep in mind, if you don't check the box to have your other name listed at the top of your profile, it'll still be visible in the About section of your profile and in search results.
Facebook is a community where people use the name they go by in everyday life. This way, you always know who you're connecting with.
If you're trying to change the name on your profile, please review our guidelines around what names are allowed on Facebook.
You may be having trouble changing your name if:
- Your name doesn't follow our name policy
- You changed your name in the last 60 days, or you tried to change it too frequently
- You were previously asked to confirm your name on Facebook
- Your name doesn't exactly match the name that appears on something from our ID list
If you want to limit the audience who sees the name you go by in everyday life on your Facebook Profile, you can adjust your Privacy settings. To do this, visit your Privacy Settings to see who can look you up and contact you.
If you're still having trouble changing your name, please let us know.