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.
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.
- 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
- 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
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.
- 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
- 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.
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 |
- 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
- Complete steps 1-3 above
- Delete your language-specific name
- Enter your Password and click Save Changes
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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're concerned about using your name on Facebook, we have tools that can help you manage what information people can see about you.
What information is public?
- 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
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
- 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 (ex: 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.
- Go to your profile
- Click Update Info at the bottom of your cover photo
- In the left column, click the section you'd like to change
- Hover over the information you'd like to edit
- To the right of that section, click Edit or Options, then select Edit
- Use the audience selector to choose who can see this information, then click Save Changes
- Go to your profile and click
- 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.
- Click About at the top of your profile
- Click Contact and Basic Info
- Hover over your email address and click the audience selector to the right of your email address
- Select
Shown on Timeline or
Hidden from Timeline
- 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
- Click
at the top right of any Facebook page.
- Click Privacy Shortcuts
- Click How do I stop someone from bothering me?
- 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 again
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