Last month, Facebook began letting members choose vanity named-based URLs and told them that they wouldn’t be allowed to change the names they picked.

Now ReadWriteWeb is reporting that the site has backpedaled and says you’ll be able to change your name–once:

It appears that Facebook has quietly launched a new option in the settings area called “username” where you have the option to change your Facebook username. To find this option, go to “Settings” at the top-right of the Facebook page and then click on “Account Settings.” The second option from the top is “Username.” Press “Change” to enter in your new username and then click “Confirm” when you’re ready to set it.

Seems reasonable–if nothing else, Facebook should allow folks to change their Facebook name when they change their names in real life, via marriage or other means.

The name-change restrictions presumably have less to do with technological limitations and more to do with Facebook’s fussy insistence that the people on Facebook should be real people going by their real names. In a Web that’s rife with anonymous trolls, pseudonymous jerks, people posing as other people, and fictitious characters, I sort of admire its stance. (And hey, I go by the very real name of harrymccracken on Facebook–feel free to friend me there if you’re a friend of mine or feel like one…)

 
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