A common question I’ve been asked multiple times is how to change my name on Facebook. This article will go through the step-by-step process to change your name, what is possible and what is not.
Personal profile page versus business page
First of all, we need to clarify where you want to change a name:
Personal profile page: This is where your personal information is stored. These accounts are for individual and personal use. You can make a request to change your name, but Facebook will review each name change.
Facebook page / business page: This is a page to represent a company, brand, public figure, artist or organization. An official representative of that entity can only create them. Name changes can only be made if the page has less than 100 connections.
Change your name
Personal profile page:
1. Go to your account settings by clicking on ‘Account’ in the upper right corner of your Facebook page. You can find ‘Account Settings’ as an option in the drop-down menu that appears.
2. Click on the first item in the list called ‘Name’ – your real name. Click on the blue link on the right called ‘change’ and the options to enter your name will appear.
3. ‘Show full name’ is the name that appears in a search. ‘Alternative name’, if checked, will also appear on your profile or in search results. ‘Nickname’ will appear between your first and last name.
Remember that Facebook will review each name change before it is approved. Depending on the number of requests they have, this can take some time, at least 24 hours.
Your name must appear using single-language characters and cannot contain titles, symbols, numbers, unusual capitalization, or punctuation. If you want to use other characters, you may want to write your name in an alphabet commonly used in Western culture as your alternate name.
Facebook page / business page:
Remember that you can only make changes as long as you have less than 100 connections on your page.
1. Go to your page. Click “Edit Page” under the profile photo.
2. Change the name in the first section called ‘Name’ in the ‘Basic Information’ section.
Facebook encourages people to use their real names. Therefore, they limit the number of times the names can be changed. You are not allowed to impersonate anyone or anything; However, Facebook has yet to react when I reported such impersonation of the artists I represent.
