Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 2 billion monthly active users as of 2023. When creating a Facebook account, users are required to provide a range of personal information, including their name. This leads many to wonder – does Facebook allow special characters in names?
Can You Use Special Characters in Your Facebook Name?
The short answer is yes, Facebook does allow some special characters to be used in your name on your profile. However, there are some restrictions on which special characters are permitted.
Here are some of the special characters that you can use in your Facebook name:
- Hyphens (-)
- Underscores (_)
- Periods (.) – but not at the start or end of the name
- Single apostrophes (‘) – but not at the start of the name
So names like Mary-Anne O’Connor, Tom_Jones, and Alicia.B would all be allowed on Facebook. However, Facebook does not allow some other special characters in names, such as:
- Ampersands (&)
- Percent signs (%)
- Number signs (#)
- Exclamation marks (!)
- Plus signs (+)
- Equal signs (=)
- Asterisks (*)
- Carets (^)
- Brackets ([ ])
- Braces ({ })
- Slashes (/ \)
- Backslashes (\\)
- At symbols (@)
- Dollar signs ($)
So if you try to create a Facebook name including any of those symbols, it will be rejected by Facebook.
Why Are Some Special Characters Not Allowed?
Facebook restricts the use of some special characters in names to help maintain the integrity of its platform and prevent abuse. Here are some of the main reasons why Facebook prohibits certain special characters:
- Prevent impersonation – Names with special characters like @ or $ could be used to impersonate brands, companies, or public figures.
- Avoid confusion – Names with lots of special characters can be hard to read and comprehend.
- Stop offensive names – Symbols like # and ! could be used to create offensive or vulgar names.
- Maintain site security – Some special characters have functions in coding and could potentially be exploited by hackers.
- Prevent abuse – Restricting symbols prevents users from including clickable links, emoji, or codes in their names which could direct to malicious sites.
So in summary, Facebook aims to provide a safe community and therefore limits names to standard letters, hyphens, underscores, periods, and apostrophes. Anything more exotic could pose risks to users or to Facebook itself.
What Happens If You Use Prohibited Special Characters?
If you attempt to create a Facebook name using special characters that are prohibited, here is what will happen:
- Registration blocked – If you try to sign up with a name containing unauthorized symbols, Facebook will not allow you to register.
- Name rejected – If you try to change your existing name to include restricted symbols, Facebook will reject the change.
- Reported as fake – Facebook users can report names with prohibited special characters as “fake”, prompting Facebook to investigate.
- Account disabled – Repeated attempts to use unauthorized symbols could get your account temporarily or permanently disabled.
In most cases, Facebook will simply block any name change or registration attempt rather than disabling your account straight away. But repeated flouting of the rules could lead to restrictions being imposed.
What About Foreign Characters and Accents?
While Facebook limits some special characters, it does allow the use of foreign language letters, characters, and accents in names on the platform.
For example, names containing letters like á, ê, ñ, ö, ø are permitted. This allows people from non-English speaking countries to use names containing characters from their native languages.
The use of Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Greek, Cyrillic, and other non-Latin scripts is also allowed in Facebook names. So foreign names containing non-English letters and symbols can be used on your profile.
The key criteria is that the name must use actual letters or linguistic characters from an established alphabet or writing system. Made-up symbols that do not correspond to real languages will still be blocked.
What About Emoji and Emoticons?
One type of special character that is definitely not allowed anywhere in your Facebook name is emoji. The colorful icons and emoticons that are popular in messaging cannot be included in your profile name.
Some examples of prohibited emoji that you cannot use in Facebook names include:
- 😀 Smiling Face
- ❤️ Red Heart
- 👍 Thumbs Up
- 🎉 Party Popper
- 💜 Purple Heart
This ban on emojis is part of Facebook’s rules against non-standard characters. Emoji do not correspond to any alphabetical writing system. Anyone trying to include emojis in their name will find their name rejected by Facebook.
Are There Any Exceptions?
Facebook’s rules around name characters do have some slight exceptions in certain circumstances:
- Middle initials – While periods are mostly banned at the start or end of names, a middle initial like “A.J.” is allowed.
- PhD titles – Names like “Dr. John Smith Ph.D.” are permitted, allowing the use of periods in credentials.
- Memorialized accounts – Special characters may be allowed in names on accounts memorialized after a death.
However, these are quite narrow exceptions with most special symbols still prohibited in the above cases.
Can Usernames Contain Special Characters?
While Facebook is restrictive around special characters in actual names, its rules on usernames are more relaxed.
When you sign up for a Facebook account, you are prompted to create a unique username for your profile web address. For these usernames, most special characters are permitted, including:
- Hyphens
- Underscores
- Periods
- @ symbols
Usernames cannot contain spaces, but otherwise Facebook allows all types of special characters in your personalized web URL. So your username could be something like “mary-jane94” or “tom*jones” with a mix of letters, numbers and symbols.
This allows for more creativity and uniqueness in Facebook usernames than is permitted for first and last names.
Tips for Including Special Characters on Facebook
Based on Facebook’s rules around special characters in names, here are some tips for including unique symbols and punctuation while staying within the guidelines:
- Hyphens and apostrophes are great for double barrelled names like “Smith-Jones”.
- An underscore can replace a space eg. “Mary_Anne”.
- A period can separate a middle initial eg. “John.A.Smith”.
- Accented letters and non-English characters add international flair eg. “António”.
- Usernames are the place to get creative with symbols and numbers eg. “[email protected]”.
With a bit of thought, you can still create a stylized name for Facebook while following the rules on special characters. Just be sure to avoid anything unauthorized like emojis, brackets, or dollar signs.
Summary and Conclusion
When setting up your profile on Facebook, you may wish to use creative spellings or special characters in your name. However, Facebook places some limits and restrictions around which symbols can be used in first and last names.
While certain punctuation like hyphens and periods is allowed, other symbols like emojis, asterisks, and brackets are prohibited. This is to help Facebook maintain the integrity of its platform and prevent impersonation or abuse.
Foreign language letters and accents are permitted in Facebook names, allowing for proper representation of names from non-English backgrounds. But made-up symbols unrelated to any language are not allowed.
Attempting to include unauthorized special characters in your name will lead to the change being rejected by Facebook. Repeated flouting of the rules could potentially lead to your account being disabled.
The unique usernames that accompany profiles are more flexible, and most special characters can be included in these. But Facebook is conservative when it comes to allowing special symbols in actual first and last names.
With some creativity, you can come up with a name that stands out while still adhering to the platform’s guidelines. Just be sure to avoid any symbols that are not on Facebook’s approved list for names.