Names on Facebook
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.
Confirming your name
If you see a message when you log in asking you to confirm your name, you may be temporarily unable to access certain Facebook features while we work with you to confirm or edit the name on your account.
To confirm or edit your name, log in to your Facebook account and follow the on-screen instructions. You may be asked to upload an ID or something else from our ID list (ex: membership cards, mail) that shows the name you use in everyday life.
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.
In a narrow set of abuse prevention scenarios, specific forms of government-issued ID may be required. For example, users that wish to run ads with political content must confirm their identity by providing specific government-issued ID.
Learn more about what happens to your ID after you send it to Facebook.
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
Using your name on Facebook
We understand that the name you use in everyday life might be different from your legal name. We want you to be able to use the name you most identify with on your Facebook profile.
Facebook is a community where everyone uses the name they go by in everyday life. Always knowing who you're connecting with helps keep you and the rest of our community safe from impersonation, scams and phishing.
Your name can't include:
- Symbols, numbers, unusual capitalization, repeating characters or punctuation.
- Characters from multiple languages.
- Titles of any kind (example: professional, religious).
- Words or phrases in place of a name.
- Offensive or suggestive words of any kind.
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 (example: 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.
Note: If your name follows our standards and you're still having trouble changing it, find out why.
You should use whichever first and last name you most identify with and use in everyday life. If you're asked to confirm your name, you can submit something from our ID list.
Keep in mind that you don't need to have a government-issued ID to confirm your name. Facebook can accept combinations of things like a magazine subscription and a utility bill, or a piece of mail and a credit card statement.
Note: You can only change the name on your Facebook account once every 60 days.
Language-specific names are only available in a few languages. Learn how to add or edit another name (example: nickname, maiden name) to your profile.
A language-specific name is your Facebook name 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.
Languages that support language-specific names
You can use language-specific names in these languages:
- Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
- Japanese
- Korean
- Russian
- Ukranian
- Serbian
- Belarusian
- Greek
- Arabic
- Hebrew
- Thai
Examples of language-specific names
Here are some examples of language-specific names:
| Facebook Name | 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 a language-specific name:
- Click
at the top-right corner and select Settings.
- Click Name.
- Click add or change your language-specific name.
- Enter your name as it appears in another language.
- 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 the name you go by in everyday life. Your language-specific name should also look the same on Facebook as it does on things like a magazine subscription, ID or membership card.
If you've read our name policies and think that your name was rejected by mistake, let us know.
If you already have an account, you can request a mononym by filling out this form. If you're trying to register for a new account using a mononym, please fill out this form.
Both forms ask 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.
Changing your name or adding additional names
You can also change your name or add additional names (ex: nickname, maiden name) to your profile. Keep in mind that you can't change your name more than once in 60 days.
To change your name on Facebook on a computer:
- Review our name standards.
- Click
- 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 fill out this form to let us know. You can only change your name every 60 days.
If you'd like to list a name on your account that's different from the name on your ID (example: maiden name, nickname, professional title):
To add another name:
- 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 Changes.
To edit or delete another name:
- Go to your Profile and click About.
- Click Details About You.
- Hover to the far right of the name you'd like to change and click Options.
- Click Edit or Delete.
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. Always knowing who you're connecting with helps keep you and the rest of our community safe from impersonation, scams and phishing.
If you don't want someone to be able to see your profile (including your name), learn how to block them.
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 match the name that appears on an item from our ID list.
Request a name change and confirm your name
If you're still having trouble changing your name, you can fill out this form to request a name change and confirm your name.
Managing your privacy
If you're concerned about using your name on Facebook, we have tools that can help you manage what information people can see about you.
Something that’s public can be seen by anyone. That includes people who aren’t your friends, people off of Facebook and people who use different media such as print, broadcast (ex: television) and other sites on the Internet. For example, if you use our services to provide a real-time public comment to a television show, that may appear on the show or elsewhere on Facebook.
What information is public?
Information you share that is always public: Some of the information you give us when you fill out your profile is public, such as your age range, language and country. We also use a part of your profile, called your Public Profile, to help connect you with friends and family. Your Public Profile includes your name, gender, username and user ID (account number), profile picture, cover photo and networks. This info is also public. Some of the ways this helps us connect you are:
- Your name, profile picture and cover photo help people recognize you
- Gender helps us describe you (ex: "Add her as a friend")
- Listing your networks (ex: school, workplace) allows others to find you more easily
- Username and user ID (ex: your account number) are in the URL of your profile
- Age range helps provide you with age-appropriate content
- Language and country help us provide appropriate content and experiences
Information you share publicly: When you choose to share something with Public (ex: when you select Public from the audience selector), it’s considered public information. If you share something and you don’t see an audience selector or another privacy setting, that information is also public. Learn more about using the audience selector to control who you share with when you post to Facebook.
Stuff other people share: If other people share info about you, even if it’s something you shared with them but did not make public, they can choose to make it public. Also when you comment on other people’s public posts, your comment is public as well.
Posts on Facebook Pages or public groups: Facebook Pages and public groups are public spaces. Anyone who can see the Page or group can see your post or comment. Generally, when you post or comment on a Page or to a public group, a story can be published in News Feed as well as other places on or off Facebook.
Remember that public information can:
- Be associated with you, even off Facebook
- Show up when someone does a search on Facebook or on another search engine
- Be accessible to Facebook-integrated games, applications and websites you and your friends use
- Be accessible to anyone who uses our APIs, such as our Graph API
Here's an overview of who can see what's on your profile and tools you can use to control what you share on your profile and timeline.
Overview- To edit things like places you’ve lived or your family and relationships, click About below your cover photo, then hover over the info you’d like to change and click Edit. Use the audience selector next to this info to choose who you're sharing it with.
- Anyone can see your public information, which includes your name, profile picture, cover photo, gender, username, user ID (account number), and networks (learn why).
- Only you and your friends can post to your timeline. When you post something, you can control who sees it by using the audience selector. When other people post on your timeline, you can control who sees it by choosing the audience of the Who can see what others post on your timeline setting.
- As you edit your info, you can control who sees what by using the audience selector.
- Before photos, posts and app activities that you’re tagged in appear on your timeline, you can approve or dismiss them by turning on timeline review. Keep in mind, you can still be tagged, and the tagged content (example: photo, post) is shared with the audience the person who posted it selected other places on Facebook (ex: News Feed and search).
- Set an audience for who can see posts you’ve been tagged in on your timeline.
- To see what your profile looks like to other people, use the View As tool.
To edit your basic personal info (example: gender, contact info, relationships, work, education):
- From your News Feed, click your name in the top left.
- Click About below your cover photo.
- In the left menu, click the section you'd like to change.
- Hover over the information you'd like to edit.
- To the right of that section, click Options, then select Edit.
- Use the audience selector to choose who can see this information, then click Save Changes.
If you set your gender to Custom and select one or more genders, you can also select an audience for your custom gender. In addition to your custom gender, you'll choose a Pronoun. The pronoun you select is public. This feature isn't available in all locations.
Note: Your email has additional settings.
You can also: This feature is currently disabled.
You can see what your profile looks like to other people by using the View As tool.
To use View As:
- Go to your profile and click
to the bottom right corner of your cover photo.
- Click View As... in the dropdown menu.
- You’ll see what your profile looks to the public. To see how your profile appears to a specific person, like a friend or coworker, click View as Specific Person, type their name and press enter.
Please keep in mind that posts and photos you’ve hidden on your timeline are still visible to the audience they're shared with other places on Facebook, like in News Feed and search. Learn more about choosing who can see the things you share.
Your email has both a privacy setting (that controls who you share it with) and a setting that controls whether it shows on your profile or not. For example, you can choose to show your email on your profile, but set its privacy to Friends, so your email is shared on your profile and other places on Facebook with your friends.
To adjust who you share your email with and decide if it shows on your profile:
- From your News Feed click your name in the top left.
- Click About at the top of your profile.
- Click Contact and Basic Info in the left menu.
- Click Edit next to your email and click the audience selector next to your email to change the audience it's shared with and save any changes.
By default, everyone can see the Friends section of your profile. To adjust who can see your Friends section:
- Go to your profile
- Click Friends below your cover photo
- Click
at the top of the page and select Edit Privacy from the dropdown menu
- Select an audience (ex: Friends, Public) to choose who you share your friend list with on your profile
Note: People may see mutual friends when they visit your profile. Your friends also control who can see their friendships on their own profiles. If people can see your friendship on another profile, they'll also be able to see it in News Feed, search and other places on Facebook.
When you block someone they will no longer be able to do things such as tag you or see things you post on your timeline.
What exactly happens when I block someone?
When you block someone, they won't be able to:
- See things you post on your profile
- Tag you in posts, comments or photos
- Invite you to events or groups
- Start a conversation with you
- Add you as a friend
If you block someone you're friends with, we'll unfriend you as well. If you don't want to unfriend someone but see less of their posts on Facebook, you can take a break from them
When you block someone, you also won't be able to do things like start a conversation with them or add them as a friend. Keep in mind that blocking someone may not prevent all communications or interactions (example: in apps or groups) and only affects your interactions with that person on Facebook.
To block someone in your blocking settings:
- Click
- Go to the left side of Facebook and click Blocking
- Click Blocking in the left side menu.
- Enter the name of the person you want to block and click Block.
- Select the specific person you want to block from the list that appears and click Block > Block [name].
People will not be notified when you block them.
If you can't find someone using this method, try going to the person's profile and selecting Block from the 
menu on their cover photo.
menu on their cover photo.Note: When you unblock someone, you won't automatically be friends again. If you block a friend and then unblock them, you'll need to send them a new friend request.
