Google+ dropped all of its restrictions regarding profile names last Tuesday, which means we can now use any name we want for our G+ Profile. Since its inception 3 years ago, Google has required that everyone use their real name to join G+. This has caused privacy concerns for a lot of folks and has probably led to some refusing to join for that simple reason. That obstacle has now been removed.
No more name restrictions for G+ – you can use nicknames and blog names 
This change is now live for all Google+ users, not just new users. So if you want to change your real name to a nickname, the title of your blog or anything else, you can do that. Be aware that changing your G+ Profile name will change it for all Google products including Gmail. Once you do change your name, you will not be allowed to change it again for 3 months. At the end of this post, I will show you the simple steps required to change your G+ Profile name.
Here’s how Google made the announcement in an unsigned post on G+:
When we launched Google+ over three years ago, we had a lot of restrictions on what name you could use on your profile. This helped create a community made up of real people, but it also excluded a number of people who wanted to be part of it without using their real names.
We know that our names policy has been unclear, and this has led to some unnecessarily difficult experiences for some of our users. For this we apologize, and we hope that today's change is a step toward making Google+ the welcoming and inclusive place that we want it to be.
Be aware that changing your G+ Profile name changes it for all G+ products
This news broke last week while I was drifting along for a few days not worrying too much about blogging or anything else – just taking a holiday, I saw a blurb about it and made a note to follow up which is what I did yesterday. A lot of G+ users like the idea while many others hate it. No surprise there I guess. The most common complaint is that real names were a way to hold people accountable for what they said online fearing that anonymity would open the field for hated “trolls”.
“Oh, don’t worry. One of the reasons this is safe to launch is that our troll-smashing department has gotten very good at their jobs… I spent two years working closely with the YouTube team on comments, and I think we have a much better understanding of what turned them into the wretched hive of scum and villainy we all know.”
Zunger explains that they have fixed some of the “broken behaviors” that allowed YouTube trolls to run wild. I hope this is true. I like things the way they are now with G+ so I don’t think I’ll be changing my name to an anonymous one any time soon.
How To Change Your Google+ Profile Name
I’ll repeat the caveat I mentioned earlier and that is changing your G+ Profile name will change it for all Google products including Gmail.
Step 1: Go to your G+ Profile page and click on your name as shown
Change your name to whatever you want and click Save
As shown above, if I had clicked save, my name would have been changed to Mickey Mouse for the next 90 days! I was actually kind of tempted!
Thanks for visiting!
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