Thursday, February 25, 2016

What's In A Name? Facebook Wants To Know...


Several years ago my oldest son wanted to get on Facebook. And so he did, but when he signed up, he entered in his first and last name along with the other required information. When he hit "Enter," he got a message back from Facebook that cordially asked him to "Please use your real name when signing up for Facebook." Or something like that.

When our first son was born we thought long and hard about what we would name him. It's a big decision, almost as big a decision as deciding to have a child in the first place. We wanted him to have a distinctive name, a strong name, but nothing too unusual. 

We decided upon the name, Knight.

Apparently Facebook didn't believe that anyone would be named Knight or that parents would ever name their child Knight. Actually, they probably didn't think that at all. Facebook has a rule that titles cannot be used as a substitute for a name. I didn't think this would apply to my son's name. I mean, I don't run into a lot of knighted individuals. Nor, do I believe, do you. But, it is technically a title so it was a "no-go."

When my son signed up years ago, he was known by Facebook as Nate. So when he wanted to sign up again this week, I thought Facebook might have changed their rules a little. I was hoping he'd have no problem this time. Turns out they did. My son had to send them a photo showing proof that his first name was actually his first name. After a day, he received a notice that he could use his first name.

And all was right with the world.

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