I’m fairly new to the Internet and still learning the ropes. I created a new account and in my hurry forgot to double check the username. It now has a wrong spelling of my name. Is it possible to change my username? If not, what is the best solution to my predicament?
Katerina Mertikas
A username of an online account can only be changed if it’s allowed by the service. In the case of email, for instance, the username determines the email address and hence, most service providers do not give an option to subscribers to change the username. And rightly so, else people would be modifying their email addresses at every whim. But that does not mean you cannot change an email address… you can!
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Generally, online accounts are identified by the username, also called user ID for this reason. Thus, the majority of service providers do not allow these changes. Obviously, you can get rid of your present account and create a new one. But this might lead to other, more complicated and/or time consuming problems like restoring the information you have currently to the new account.
You can change the username on some services
Though uncommon, some popular services, like Twitter.com, do let you change the username without affecting any information that is stored in the account. And remember, a username can be changed to a new one if the latter is available and not in use by another subscriber. Usernames have to be unique!
Take heart! Everyone makes mistakes. If the username of your account has a spelling error or just sounds funny (as in the image below), it’s best to change it than suffer the continual ignominy of having people laugh at you.
Suggestions: Contact the service provider – get to speak to a live person, if possible. Ask them if they allow changes to the username without going through the process of deleting the present account and getting a new one. You may also like to look at the help and FAQ pages of the service.
