I recently rebranded my blog, changing the name to something I feel better describes the site’s mission. While the content remained the same, the only thing different was the name.
Once I bought my new domain name and transferred all the old posts to the new site, I went about updating my social media profiles.
Not a single social network gave me trouble with changing the username and title except Facebook!
Facebook lets you change the username of your page pretty easily.
However, to update your Facebook Page name, you have to go to the “About” section of your page, and then click “Edit” next to the name.
I did this thinking it wouldn’t be an issue, but much to my surprise, Facebook denied my Page name change request!
Apparently they felt it “misled” my page followers:
What?! It seems that because the name is drastically different from the old one, Facebook assumes I’m misleading people.
I thought this was super bizarre, but Facebook offers a way to “appeal” the decision so I started that process. I wrote a pretty basic explanation as to why I was requesting a name change, reiterating that the content of my blog was not changing, just the name itself. I thought any reasonable person who read this would approve it automatically!
After 3 days with no response to my appeal, I started Googling around and realized this is an all too common problem. Apparently Facebook allows name changes for pages with less than 100 likes, but for pages with more likes, changing the name becomes quite difficult. I read stories about people who showed how they bought a new domain name, but didn’t change the content of their site, were still denied in their appeal for a Facebook name change request! Totally nuts.
Thankfully, I came across a clever way to change my Facebook Page name after getting denied.
Essentially, if your Facebook name change has been denied, you need to go about changing it very slowly, little by little so Facebook thinks you’re only making minor adjustments each time, that wouldn’t throw off your followers.
The whole process was quite silly and took me about 2 weeks, but in the end, I’m happy I was able to successfully change my Facebook Page name.
How to Change Your Facebook Page Name After Getting Denied
Here’s what I did:
I wanted to change my name from “Design by Digital” to “Blog Ambitious”
So I submitted a change request for “Design by Digital Blog”
Approved!
The next day (Facebook makes you wait 1-2 days before changing your page name again), I requested “Design by Digital Blog Ambitious”
Approved again!
The next time, I requested a removal of a word: “by Digital Blog Ambitious”. I made these requests a few more times: “Digital Blog Ambitious” and finally “Blog Ambitious”.
Don’t cut corners by removing or adding more than ONE word at a time. Trust me, I tried it on the last step. It won’t work and will slow you down an extra day!
As you can see from my screenshot, I was requesting a new name every day if not every other day, depending on my schedule. It takes a bit of time for the approval to go through, and then for you to remember to submit a new request again.
I know it’s ridiculous but this is the only workaround where I’ve been able to change my Facebook page name successfully.
I hope you found this Facebook page name change trick useful!
Thank you.
Anytime!
Haha you’re a genius that fully worked
Link please
This is exactly what I needed to read. Thanks a lot!
Sure thing!
Thank you for this! If my appeal is not approved I will start this process. Very helpful!
Has anyone actually had an appeal approved, or even responded to?
Yes they have approved appeal for me when I attached copy of business name registration.
I’m going to try this too! Thanks so much for sharing – I’ve been trying to change my biz fb page name for three months now!
This is genius!!! Thank you so much….going to start this procedure right away and if it works, I owe you one!! lol
Does your facebook audience get notified of all the incremental name changes along the way?
That’s a good question, Anita, and I’m not sure of the answer!
Hi, thank you for this idea. How does this work with fb policy of only being able to change a page name every 28 days?
Thanks! I just started this process but Facebook now only lets you change your (Page) name once a week. I’ve just done the first step (and it worked!), but its going to take another 3 weeks to fully change based on this as I have to drop 3 words!
Hi Georgina, Oh no! I guess Facebook caught on to this workaround. I wish they would just allow us to make reasonable changes to our Page Name but it appears they are doubling down on efforts to make it difficult. UGH. Sorry to hear that, but thanks for sharing!
Georgina, I have just used this strategy and although they say you can only change once per week I was able to do it once per day as long as I had waited at least the 24 hours since the last change. I changed one word per day and now have our new business name :).
That’s great news, Anita! Thanks for sharing this workaround!!
Doesn’t seem to work for me.. I have added one word. It didn’t even approve that..
Cool stuff. thanks !
Thank you so much Blog!
My page name was only a single word name, like “firstword” and they never allowed me to change it to another single word name that I wanted, like “secondword”. Following your guidelines I added “secondword” to the original “firstword” creating the new name “firstword secondword”, that was accepted.
Exactly 7 days later, facebook gave me green light to change name again, and I asked just for “secondword” and just after a few seconds… I was beeing notified that the new name had been accepted 🙂
Perfect, and I would never had guessed it, if I hadn’t read your article. Thanks!
So glad to hear this worked for you, Paul!!
ah thank you so much for posting this. I just got denied a name change from roots of life wellness to rooted + wild. Simply rebranding but all my content is the same (I’m an herbalist) I did appeal it with screenshots of my Shopify store and my Instagram account with over 10K followers showing the same content. No idea if they’ll respond, this JUST happened. I will try the one word at a time thing if it doesn’t work- i think it’s gonna take a while though!
well they denied the change even with information so i’m trying your method- it’s working. Thank you!
Thank you so much for your advice – just been told by FB Robots that FB wouldn’t accept my name change – will be trying the one word at a time approach next week!
That actually works. Thanks a lot.
Brilliant, you are a genius. :)) I will give it a try!
Thanks!
I will try!
Brilliant hack! It worked for me – many thanks! Saved me from lots of frustration.
Thank you guy I will try your way
My tag has been blocked from changing the name. Is this permanent or temporary? Thank you
Unfortunately I don’t work for Facebook so I can’t say what is going on with your account :/
Thank you for this. I am changing my page name one word at a time and it works!
Fantastic!
This is super helpful as I am trying to do the same thing at the moment.
Question – After your appeal was denied, how long did it take for you to make another attempt at changing your name? It’s been a couple of days since I appealed their decision and I’m still getting this message when I try to edit the name: “Your Page name can’t be changed. You can update your Page category and add other info to describe your Page so it is easier for people to find it.”
Just wondering when this message will lift and I can follow your helpful tips. Thanks!
Hey Jarrod! It was definitely within a few days. Facebook could have changed the way they process appeals since I wrote this article, though. Best of luck!
Thanks for the response. It is now day 7 and I’m still locked out. I wonder if continuing to click the edit button to see if it’s unlocked is causing the delays? But I won’t know unless I keep checking. This is super annoying but I am anxious to see if your formula works for me. I hope it does as I have 9K followers on Facebook. I would hate to lose them!
Did it change?
It’s ridiculous to have to do this, but thank you for sharing a solution!! Just started the process XD
Agreed XD Good luck!
I am actually going through this right now! So frustrating! Let me try it your way. Thank you so much!
Thank you for the information, this is exactly what I needed however, we now have to wait 7 days between changes. Also, my page is brand new and only has a few likes, therefore even small pages have difficulty changing names.
Hey Louis! Thanks for the updates. I’m guessing Facebook caught wind of this workaround and make some changes to the way things work. 🙁 I hope you’ll be able to change your Page name soon enough!
Thanks for the info, I’m also in the process of changing it. However, in the last step, I tried to remove almost a word and a hyphen (“Travels -“) and they didn’t approve it instantly, however before that, it took like 10 seconds to approve the request.:(
now i’m really afraid that i’m stuck and will no longer be able to change the name. Did you also try to change two words at once and they did not approve it? Many thanks 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the useful info.
I tried it and it worked until the last name change…which didn’t get approved yet.:[
I removed “travels -” from its original name, and facebook said it will send a notification if it is approved. However, before that, they approved the name changes instantly.
Now I am really afraid that they won’t let me again change the name of my page 🙁
If I look back to the previous name change notifications, they all say that the name change hasn’t been approved, while at the moment it was approved. How could a notification change?! It is so strange. I am afraid that I have to create a new page. :/
Has your request been denied when you tried to change 2 words at once?
Thanks, Agnes
Hey Agnes, that’s correct. You cannot change more than ONE word at a time. The process is slower, but it’s the only way. In your case, it looks like the hyphen is considered one word, so just treat it as such. Good luck!
Facebook name Chotu Pathan sorry yes
Hi,
This was a great read, but I am having trouble.
I’m trying to change my page name from Johnny Third to Rich Delinquent
I tired with “Johnny Third Delinquent” First and got denied… But it was one word different….
Does the word “Delinquent” have too may characters in it or something so it gets flagged?
Any help would be amazing
Hey John, So sorry but I don’t work for Facebook so I can’t say what’s going on here. My advice would be to try again with “Rich” and see if that gets accepted. I wrote this article one year ago in 2018 so it’s entirely possible that Facebook has changed their policies since then. Good luck!
Hey thanks,
Just had the exact same issue….and I only created the page today but then realised the domain I wanted was too expensive. I will try this…I think it will work.
Facebook can be ridiculous!
Tried it just now and it worked like a charm! Thank you for this advice!
Exactly what I needed… even my appeal was rejected! Have started on this quest now. Thank you
Thank goodness I found this. My appeals got rejected. Took 9 days but managed to change the name. Thank you.
Haha thank you! what a trick!
THANK YOU!! I successfully changed one word today…. will continue on and will hopefully have it fully changed in a few days.
Yes!! Good luck, Mary!!
Thank you so much! I am having this very same issue, and never would have thought of this approach without reading your article. Thanks for taking the time to write it!!! You just saved me a TON of time!@
Of course, anytime! 🙂
how long do you need to wait after getting denied to try again ?
As soon as Facebook allows you to!
Hi, Did you change both @handle and name in the same go, for each step of the process?
Hey Kat! No, Facebook allowed me to change the @ handle right away so I did that right at the start.
Thank you very much for this blog! I am so happy you posted this.. I had issues changing my name to a gaming page I have on facebook and I named it wrong.. then FB wouldn’t change it for me to something more suitable.. now I’m on my way to go from Coop – Johnstown Steel to Gitago Gaming.. – Step 1 complete.. Thanks again!!!
Hi
This unfortunately doesn’t help me as my new name is quite similar to the old one. All I got was a refusal with no right to request again until 7 days pass by. No option to submit an appeal. The page is Silk & Art and I requested Silken Circle. How is that misleading?
Do I just start a new page? I have 2,300 followers.
I am trying since 4 months to do this , but it does not work, I make rebranding of my restaurants, and the name Change from Crêpe de Paris to Mon Paris after 10 years, facebook always denied my changes name, I dont know what to do, the restaurants, food, staff are still the same it s just new name, facebook is the only place that didnt allow me the change, please help me
Facebook sucks, 2 year ago I decided to change my fanpage name, but Facebok never approved the change, now they have approved that change but now I don’t want that name because since they never help me in the past I started my brand with the original name, now I want to return to the original name and I just can’t do it, I wil try your method, just hope Facebok doesn’t approved it 1 year after, it is very annoying
Hi i don’t understand the part “requested a removal of a word” is there another button to request a removal of name? Thank you it works for me the first part now im trouble in that part i really appreciate it if you reply to this. Again thank you
Each time you change the page name (little by little) are your followers notified??
Thank you for useful information. I think Facebook is annoying and user-unfriendly after all. I hate it. We should just stop using it and go to Instagram lol
Thank you!
i’ve got this error Your Page name can’t be changed.
totally cant change at all =(
Thanks for the useful tip !!
I have been able to change the name a lot so far.
Now, I am stuck at ‘Quotes Soulful Motivation’
Need to finally change it to ‘Soulful Motivation’
It’s not getting approved since many days
Some tip ?
Same here.
The first word of original name and it is last word to remove, it didn’t approve and stuck.
it says “Name cannot be changed at this time due to too many requests”
Did you get it fixed or not, please let me know?
I get the same message. The company I work for bought a business with a good social media following – they transferred ownership and everything was going swimmingly… until I tried to change the name of the page to match our brand. We’re selling exactly the same product as before! I had name changed denied, then appeals denied, then I tried contacting business support… denied… and now I see this message. What a joke.
Did you get it fixed? How long did the “too many requests” thing last?
GENIUS!
That’s a very clever solution I hope it works in my case. Before I try it, can I ask did you get the following message when you tried to change the page name “Creating content with this name is not allowed. Please try another name”.
Just wanted to see if that’s a standard message.
thanks for writing this blog
Hi Gordon, I wrote this article several years ago, but I don’t recall seeing a message like that. I believe the one I posted in my screenshots was more along the lines of misleading my followers.
Best of luck!
Thanks
Thanks for the above, unfortunately i have tried all of the above without success. I have never had any notification/response from facebook to even acknowledge my requests. It is very frustrating.
I am trying to change from Tina Cameron Photography to Tina Cameron Laird Photography so there is not much difference at all??
Yesss! I’m planning to do this but unsure if it will work or not. Thankfully I found your blog, so yeah, thank you!
Facebook allows name changes for pages with less than 100 likes, but for pages with more likes, changing the name becomes quite difficult
👆🏻 U shared this… So is that mean that if my page has more than 100 likes, i cannot do the way u changed your page…right?
Hi, no my page had more than 100 likes when I did this.
I have been trying to change my page name for a year with Facebook due to a rebrand and relaunch. I started the process of this last week and was able to add a word to the end – success! But sadly since then it has blocked any attempt to delete any of the previous words. Does anyone have any thoughts on how I should get around this? Wait 28 days for each name change attempt? Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated! Thanks in advance.
Hi Lisa,
Apologies if you weren’t able to remove a word. I would just keep trying! I wrote this article years ago so Facebook may have changed the system since then. Best of luck!
Hello! This was very helpful! However, I’m wondering where you found their response? I have less than 100 likes and I’ve requested a change twice and I haven’t heard anything for more than 3 days (which is the most time they state it’ll take to get a response). I’ve checked my inbox, my support inbox, my notifications, everywhere!
Mine was either in notifications or inbox!
I can’t believe this worked for me now in February 2022. I was desperate to change our name.
I tried to do a complete name change about 2 months after I made my page and it was rejected. That was about two weeks ago and all I have gotten since then is the error message saying too many requests were made. I only made one. So, so, so frustrating! I would really like to do some paid advertising but surely not if I can’t even do it under my correct business name. I imagine Facebook is losing a lot of ad money by being so silly about page name rules.
Our department manages a Facebook page with over 24,000 followers. We suddenly have to change our branding and it’s been a month since we requested for a new page name. No progress until now. Anyone knows what might be the problem or solution?
We’ve recently requested the page name change and didn’t succeed. Meta support told us we can submit a new request after 60 days. Is it true that we have to wait for so long?
Facebook company Bhai I love team🤝🏻 please help me yes please⏱️time 24 hours please help me
Error⚠️
We can’t accept this request because you’ve already submitted a name change request within the last 60 days.
Please help me Yes please⏱️time 24 hours
Thank you so much for this suggestion!
On a computer:
Log in to your Facebook account.
Click on the dropdown tab icon on the top right corner.
Select “Settings” from the “Settings & Privacy” dropdown menu.
Click on “Name” and update your name.
Enter your new name and select “Review change.”