Wikipedia:Username policy

"WP:U" and "WP:UN" redirect here. For the guidelines, see Wikipedia:User pages and Wikipedia:Userboxes. For the WikiProject, see Wikipedia:WikiProject United Nations. For the upload wizard, see Wikipedia:File upload wizard.

This policy describes what kinds of usernames are acceptable on the English Wikipedia and how unacceptable or doubtful usernames can be handled. It also specifies that a user account should be used only by one person, and that in most cases one person should use only one account.

You choose your username when creating a user account. All contributions made using that account will then be attributed to the chosen username (contributions made while not logged in to any account are attributed to a temporary account with an automatically generated number as its name). It is also possible to request a change of username, and have your past contributions re-attributed to the new name.

This policy applies to usernames on the English Wikipedia. However, in most cases you will be able to use the same username and password to log in to other language Wikipedias and other Wikimedia Foundation supported projects. See Wikipedia:Unified login.

Introductory clip on usernames

Guidance for new users

English Wikipedia username policy summary

Your username must represent you as an individual person

Accounts with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed on Wikipedia:

• consist only of the name of a company, organization, website, musical group, team, club, creative group, or organized event
• describe only a particular role, title, or position that can be held by different people, or a department, group, or team within a parent organization or group that includes multiple people
• are promotional in nature or appear intended to advertise, promote, sell, gain support for, or increase awareness of any person, company, market, product, channel, website, or other good or service
• imply that the user account will be shared between more than one person

Your username must be truthful, appropriate, and not foster a negative editing environment

Any and all Wikipedia accounts, regardless of age, with usernames that meet any of the following criteria will be immediately blocked upon discovery:

• are offensive, profane, violent, threatening, sexually explicit, disruptive, or intended to advocate or encourage such behavior (including criminal or illegal acts)
• contain statements that are libelous, contentious, or disparaging, or disclose any private or non-public information about another person (either another Wikipedia editor or a notable living person)
• are deliberately deceptive, confusing, misleading, unnecessarily long, similar to the usernames of other accounts, or intended to impersonate or falsely present themselves as someone or something they are not (another Wikipedia editor, a notable living person, an "official" Wikimedia Foundation account, etc.) in bad faith
• imply that the account has explicit ownership of any articles, content, topic areas, or Wikipedia processes; has any kind of "power" or "authority" over other editors; is subject to different standards of accountability under Wikipedia's policies and guidelines than other users (such as implying that certain policies do not apply to them); or has any administrative or "moderator" access levels or user rights
• imply the intent to troll, vandalize, or disrupt Wikipedia
• imply the intent to personally attack, harass, or threaten other Wikipedia users
• imply that you are not here to build an encyclopedia or will use Wikipedia for purposes that it was not created for

Your username is a nickname that identifies your account and, by extension, all of your contributions to Wikipedia. You may use your real name as your username if you choose, but choosing a username that discloses your real name or other personal information is not recommended. Regardless, you should be aware of the risks involved in disclosing your real name (or any other personal information) on Wikipedia. Wikipedia usernames are case-sensitive, and if the first character of your username is a letter, that letter will be automatically capitalized. By default, your username appears in your signature on discussion pages. For further details on signatures and how to customize them, see Wikipedia:Signatures.

You will be required to specify a username when creating a new account, and you will use it (together with your password) to log in to that account. Once you have an account, you may create a user page, located at User:XXXX (where "XXXX" is your username), to provide information about yourself to other Wikipedians. You or any other editor may also create a user talk page, located at User talk:XXXX, which people can use to contact you.

Once chosen, a username cannot be easily changed, and changing your username does not hide your previous username from all of the edits that you've made while using it (such as signatures containing your previous username that you left on talk pages). For example, if "Dr. Franz Schröder" is your real name, and you choose this to be your username, your real name and doctorate will be evident in your edits and page histories, and (unless you change your signature) on all messages and replies you make on talk pages. It is highly recommended that you read and understand the section on using your real name as your username before you decide to do so. Using your real name as your username carries risks, and you should proceed only after completely understanding them. Likewise, reusing a name here that you also use on other sites may be as revealing as using your actual name.

The MediaWiki software does not allow you to register a new account with a username that is already taken by an existing account or that is too similar to another account. You can check whether a username is already taken by visiting the global account information page, entering your desired username into the search box, and clicking the "View user information" button. If the page displays the message "There is no global account for 'XXXX'", it means that the desired username is not taken. Please note that the page does not return usernames that are similar to the one that you entered into the search box; it only returns a match if the exact username you entered is already taken by an existing account. You may still be able to obtain a username that is too similar to another account under certain circumstances; see § Similar usernames below.

Your username can be almost any string of characters (subject to a few technical limitations); you can see this list for some examples of usernames that other editors have chosen. However, it should be a name that other users will be comfortable with, complies with all applicable policies and requirements set forth on this page, and does not interfere with the project. A controversial username may create a negative impression among other users; avoiding such usernames is in your interest. This page describes certain types of usernames that are specifically disallowed, primarily because they may be offensive, misleading, promotional, or suggest that the account does not belong to an individual.

Inappropriate usernames

This section lists the types of usernames that are considered inappropriate. The same criteria also apply to signatures.

These lists are not necessarily exhaustive. Use common sense in applying these rules; a username containing a word that may seem offensive in one context may have a very different, more benign meaning in another. For guidance on how to handle inappropriate usernames, see § Handling inappropriate usernames below.

Disruptive or offensive usernames

Any and all Wikipedia accounts, regardless of age, with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed and will be immediately blocked upon discovery:

• Usernames that are likely to offend other contributors, disrupt productive Wikipedia processes or discussions, or make harmonious editing difficult or impossible, e.g. by containing profanities or referencing highly contentious events or controversies.
• Usernames that are profane, violent, threatening, or sexually explicit, or that advocate or encourage any such behavior (including acts that are deemed by most societies to be either extremely immoral, criminal, or illegal).
• Usernames that deliberately offend, dehumanize, attack, demean, disparage, or discriminate against any race/color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, political affiliation, social group, identity, or status; that support or advocate such behavior; or that imply an intent to do so. Examples include:

• Usernames that contain discriminatory attacks, racial slurs, or pejorative terms.
• Usernames that praise highly contentious people, groups (also known as "hate groups"), or events—past, present, or future—associated with efforts intended to cause discriminatory, social, physical, emotional, or psychological harm to members of these groups.

• Usernames that contain or imply personal attacks, or imply an intent to personally attack, harass, or threaten other Wikipedia editors.
• Usernames that appear intended to disrupt legitimate Wikipedia discussions and processes by provoking negative emotional reactions from other editors (also known as "trolling").
• Usernames that show or imply the intent to vandalize, disrupt, or engage in bad-faith editing or other disruptive behaviors that are clearly not intended to help build or improve Wikipedia in a positive or collaborative manner.

These accounts should be immediately blocked by administrators upon discovery, and consideration should be given to whether the usernames should be redacted from any logs or edit revisions—especially if they are grossly offensive or destructive and likely to offend many editors. Note that usernames may still be considered inappropriate if they are offensive or disruptive in another language, meet one of the criteria above through misspellings or substitutions, or convey such meanings indirectly or by implication.

Usernames involving libelous, contentious, or non-public information

See also: Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons § Remove contentious material, and Wikipedia:Biographies of living persons § Usernames

Any and all Wikipedia accounts, regardless of age, with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed and will be immediately blocked upon discovery:

• Usernames that contain contentious or disparaging statements about another person (whether the person is another Wikipedia editor, a notable living or recently deceased person, or someone else).
• Usernames that are clearly libelous, contain blatantly false or disparaging statements or accusations about another person, or constitute blatant violations of Wikipedia's policy on biographies of living people.
• Usernames that contain any non-public or personally identifiable information about another person, or contain any other information that would be deemed appropriate for suppression by an Oversighter, e.g. usernames that state what the password to the account (apparently) is.

These accounts should be immediately blocked by administrators upon discovery. If such usernames are libelous or contain information that is usually suppressed (such as disclosure of non-public personally identifiable information about another editor, or blatantly libelous statements made about a notable living person), the username should be suppressed from all logs by an Oversighter to protect Wikipedia and the subjects involved from any kind of negative fallout or harm as a result of the account creation. Requests for removing attack usernames from logs should be reported to the global Stewards team for evaluation and private removal from all Wikimedia Foundation projects. This can be done either via IRC in the #wikimedia-stewards ^connect channel or via email to the stewards VRT queue at stewards-oversightwikimedia.org.

Misleading usernames

Wikipedia accounts with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed because they may be misleading in a way that disrupts the project:

• Usernames that impersonate other people (see § Real names and § Similar usernames below).
• Usernames that give the impression that the account has permissions that it does not have; e.g. by containing the terms administrator, bureaucrat, steward, checkuser, oversight, or similar terms, such as admin, sysop, or moderator.
• Usernames that imply that the account has explicit ownership of any Wikipedia articles, content, topic areas, or internal processes; has any kind of "power", "command", "control", or "authority" over other editors; or is subject to different standards of accountability under Wikipedia's policies and guidelines than other users (such as implying that certain policies do not apply to them).
• Usernames that could easily be misunderstood as identifying a bot or script account, unless the account is of that type; such as ABC Bot, XYZ script.
• Usernames that give the incorrect impression that the account is officially affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation; e.g. Foo (WMF), Bar (Wikimedia Foundation), Qux-WMF
• Usernames that resemble temporary account serial numbers (e.g. ~2026-11994-61), IP addresses (historically used to designate non-logged-in users), timestamps (e.g. 00:58, 20 July 2026 (UTC)), or other names which would be confusing within the Wikipedia signature format.
• Usernames that appear similar to naming conventions used by community administrative processes, such as those starting with Renamed user or Vanished user (see Wikipedia:Courtesy vanishing).

For accounts with usernames that are in this category, you should assume good faith in cases where the username could be interpreted ambiguously. For example, a new user who has a career as a systems operator (or sysop) might include that in their username, unaware of the policy prohibiting it. Before considering further action, attempts should typically be made to discuss the username policy and the specific concerns with the user, and to request that they change their username. In cases where the violation of policy or the user's intent is clear, or likely created in bad faith, you should exhibit the use of common sense and fair and level-headed judgment when determining the appropriate action to take. Accounts with usernames that are blatant and unambiguous violations and are clearly acting in bad faith should be reported by following the instructions on Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention.

Promotional usernames

"WP:ORGNAME" redirects here. For the convention for organization names in article titles, see Wikipedia:Naming conventions (companies).

Wikipedia accounts with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed because they are considered promotional:

• Usernames that consist only of the name of a company, organization, website, product, musical group or band, team, club, creative group, or organized event (e.g. TownvilleWidgets, MyWidgetsUSA.com, TrammelMuseumofArt, OctoberfestBandConcert2019).

• However, usernames that contain such names are sometimes permissible; see § Usernames implying shared use below.
• Usernames that represent the subject of a biographical article are not considered promotional; see § Stage names.

• Usernames that consist only of Email addresses or URLs to domains or websites (especially if they promote a commercial web page) and don't simply identify a person (e.g. sales@example.com).

• This includes websites that are intended to generate revenue for their owner. Examples include Patreon pages, pages requesting donations, and revenue-generating affiliate links to vendors. Any page designed for one or more of these purposes should be treated as a commercial webpage and is therefore inappropriate for use in a username.
• Usernames that only contain plain domain names on their own (those that do not include the top-level domain, such as .com, .net, .co.kr, etc. at the end) are sometimes acceptable (such as when the domain is a common word or phrase or the purpose is simply to identify the user as a person).

• Usernames that are promotional or show that the user's primary intent is to advertise, promote, sell, gain support for, or increase awareness of any person, company, market, product, channel, website, or other good or service.

Users who both adopt a promotional username and engage in inappropriate advertising or promotional edits or behaviors – especially when made to their own user space or to articles about the company, group, or product – may be immediately blocked from editing Wikipedia and are usually blocked much sooner than users who engage in only one of the two behaviors. In such cases, administrators should examine the user's edits to decide whether to allow them to continue editing under a different username. If there is evidence that the user would continue to edit inappropriately under a new username, the administrator should enable the "autoblock any IP addresses used" and "block account creation" options when blocking the account. If there is no evidence—or if any available evidence is inconclusive—that the user would continue to edit inappropriately under a new username, these block options should be left disabled so that the user can create a new account with an appropriate username or have their current username changed. Before taking action, any disagreements about whether an account's username is acceptable should be discussed at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/User names first. Users who adopt promotional usernames but are not editing problematically in related articles should not be blocked. Instead, efforts should be made to contact the user and request that they change their username.

Usernames implying shared use

See also: Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry § Role accounts

Wikipedia accounts with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed because they imply shared use under Wikipedia's policy regarding shared accounts:

• Usernames that unambiguously represent companies or groups (these also fall under § Promotional usernames above). For example, ABC Inc, XYZ Foundation, or Foo University.
• Usernames that imply shared access between two or more people, such as Jack and Jill.
• Usernames that consist only of the name of a particular role, title, post, or position that can be transferred or held by different people at different times, such as Secretary of the XYZ Foundation or XYZ Club President.
• Usernames that consist only of the name of a department, group, or team within a parent organization or group whose membership may include multiple people, such as Accounting Department at Company XYZ or XYZ Foundation Social Media Group.

• However, usernames are acceptable if they contain a company or group name but are clearly intended to denote an individual person, such as Mark at WidgetFactory, Jack Smith at the XYZ Foundation, or FacebookFanatic87.

Promotional editing is not permitted, regardless of any account's chosen username. The conflict of interest guideline advises all users to exercise caution if editing articles about businesses, organizations, products, or other subjects that they are closely connected to. If you choose to edit articles that are in any way related to your company or group, you will need to carefully follow Wikipedia's advice on editing with a conflict of interest.

Non-script usernames

Wikipedia accounts with usernames that meet any of the following criteria are not allowed due to the difficulty with some web browsers in viewing non-language Unicode characters:

• Usernames that contain emoji.
• Usernames that are considered to be emoticons or otherwise "decorative".
• Usernames that use any non-language symbols. This includes:

• Symbols and characters unrelated to the list of writing systems.
• Symbols and characters that are on the block lists at Unicode symbols.

Note that this restriction does not apply to signatures, which are governed by Wikipedia's policies on the use of signatures.

Confusing usernames

Some usernames appear problematic without fitting clearly into any of the above categories. This is often the case with confusing or extremely lengthy usernames, which are highly discouraged but which are not so inappropriate on their own as to require action.

Confusing usernames can often be a red flag for other problems. An editor with a confusing username or signature may be blocked sooner than usual for other inappropriate behavior, such as disruption or vandalism, if their confusing username contributes to the disruption.

Exceptions

Some accounts with usernames that appear to violate the username policy have been allowed to remain by consensus because they were created before this policy was amended to prohibit those usernames (see grandfather clause). If you find an account with an apparently problematic username that belongs to a long-standing editor, it is likely that the matter has been discussed before. Please search that user's talk page (and archives, if applicable), and the archives of the administrators' noticeboards and requests for comment on usernames page before deciding to take any of the actions described below.

Handling inappropriate usernames

If you encounter an account with an inappropriate username as described in the section on Inappropriate usernames, there are several actions that you can take to address the issue. Use common sense when deciding how to respond, and avoid "biting" newcomers.

No action necessary

If the account's username is not unambiguously problematic, it may be appropriate to simply ignore it. In these cases, you should assume good faith while noting the grandfather clause described in the Exceptions section of this page. Except in extreme cases, it is usually not worth taking action unless the user has made at least one recent edit.

Talk to the user

If you see an account with a problematic username that does not appear to have been created in bad faith, politely point the user to the relevant section of this policy page and encourage them to either create a new account with a different username or request a username change for their current account. You can use the {{subst:uw-username}}, {{subst:uw-uall}} or {{subst:uw-coi-username}} template to leave an appropriate message.

Request for comment

If any doubt or disagreement remains as to whether the username is appropriate after discussing it with the editor, you may open a Request for comment on the username. This invites other editors to discuss the issue and provide input.

Report blatant violations

If you believe that an account requires an immediate block because its username is a clear violation of the username policy, you can report it to Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention. This page should only be used for clear and egregious username violations that warrant an immediate block without prior discussion or warning.

Do not both add a warning to a user's talk page about their username and report the account to Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention at the same time. A warning or discussion by another editor should serve as an invitation or an encouragement for the user to change their username or otherwise resolve the issue, while filing a report against the account seeks immediate administrative action without prior discussion or warning. These two actions directly conflict with one another, and taking both actions can cause frustration and confusion and may result in biting newcomers when the assumption of good faith would likely have been the preferred initial response.

Report other problems

If an account with an inappropriate username also violates other Wikipedia policies, such as those against spam or vandalism, you should address the other issues under those policies rather than reporting the username. If the user is editing a subject or topic area in a biased or promotional way, or appears to have a personal connection to the subject, report them at the Conflict of interest noticeboard.

Usernames for administrator attention guidelines

Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention (UAA) is a noticeboard for quickly drawing attention to blatantly inappropriate or abusive usernames. See Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention/Instructions for information on how to place or resolve UAA reports, including the options that are available to administrators.

We do not want to block new users; however, blocking is sometimes necessary in order to protect Wikipedia from harm. Users whose usernames are technical or borderline violations of the username policy should generally be given an opportunity to discuss the issue and choose a new username. If such users are reluctant to change their username but are otherwise making positive contributions to the project, they should normally be allowed to continue editing, and further action should not be taken. This exception does not apply to users with clearly offensive or abusive usernames, users engaging in repeated vandalism or disruptive editing, or users whose edits demonstrate problematic bias or a conflict of interest.

Other particular types of usernames

Real names

"WP:IMPERSONATE" redirects here. For impersonation regarding signatures, see WP:Signature forgery.

All editors — especially younger editors, including children — are strongly discouraged from creating accounts with usernames that reveal their real names, are based on nicknames or usernames used elsewhere online that could be linked to their identities, or contain other personally identifiable information. Furthermore, all editors — regardless of age — should carefully consider the risks and consequences before registering and using an account with a username that contains such information. Using an account with such a username significantly increases the risk of harassment and having personal information posted without permission (also known as doxxing). This risk is especially high if they become involved with controversial topics on Wikipedia. In some countries, editing Wikipedia may be illegal, and using an account with a username that contains personally identifiable information can put users at greater risk of legal consequences. While it is possible to change your username (see § Changing your username below), a record of your previous username is permanently retained on Wikipedia. In addition, not all occurrences of your previous username in existing edits will be hidden or automatically changed to your new one, such as signatures containing your previous username that you left on talk pages.

Do not create an account with a username that is likely to imply that you are (or are related to) a specific identifiable person, unless the username is your real name. If your account's username contains your real name, and if your name is shared by a notable living person to whom you are unrelated, you should clearly state on your user page that you are unrelated to that person.

If an account's username implies that the user is, or is related to, a notable living person, the account may be blocked as a precaution against impersonation until the user provides proof of identity.

If you have been blocked for using your real name, please understand that this measure is intended to prevent impersonation or harassment of you or others who may share the same name. You are welcome to use your real name, but in some cases, you will need to prove that you are who you say you are. You can do this by sending an email to info-enwikimedia.org. Be aware that emails are handled by a volunteer response team; it can take some time before you receive a reply. Do not send unsolicited scans of your passport or driver's license to the volunteer response team. Instead, you should contact them to find out the best way to prove your identity. The best method will vary, but may involve using an email address on a domain name that belongs to you.

Stage names

Users may use their own stage name, pen name, or other nickname as their account's username, provided that it uniquely identifies a single person. This is not considered promotional, even if the name is used for commercial performances or publications, unless the user makes promotional edits within Wikipedia about themselves, their projects, or related subjects. However, users may not use someone else's stage name as their username, as with using someone else's real name — see § Real names.

Usernames with non-Latin characters

See also: Wikipedia:Unified login and Wikipedia:Signatures § Non-Latin

Users with usernames in non-Latin script writing systems are welcome to edit Wikipedia. There is no requirement that usernames must be in English or that Latin script characters must be used. However, such usernames may appear illegible to other contributors to the English Wikipedia, and not every user's keyboard or input device may have immediate access to non-Latin characters. In addition, sometimes certain characters may not display correctly. As a courtesy to other contributors, and to avoid possible confusion or mis-identification, users with such usernames are encouraged to provide a Latin-character transliteration username on their userpage, and also as (at least part of) their signature. For an example, using the signature Παράδειγμα/Paradigma for User:Παράδειγμα.

The AntiSpoof extension does not allow the creation of usernames that contain characters from certain unusual scripts, such as Runic and Ugaritic. It also does not allow usernames to contain characters from multiple non-Latin scripts (Japanese and Korean languages are exempted, as they are natively written in multiple scripts).

For technical reasons, usernames containing any forbidden characters (# < > [ ] | { } /, as well as @ : =), are not possible. Usernames also cannot contain sequences of three or more consecutive tildes, as these are used to generate signatures, and cannot contain underscores, as the software automatically converts underscores to spaces and strips away any leading and trailing spaces.

Similar usernames

See also: Wikipedia:AntiSpoof, Wikipedia:Harassment § false flag, and Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry § Joe job

Accounts with usernames that are similar to those of existing accounts cannot normally be registered – but if you wish to use one, you may request that the account be created at Wikipedia:Request an account. Requests for accounts with usernames that are similar only to those of unused or inactive accounts are usually approved if no other issues are found. Special:CentralAuth can be used to check whether a username is available. The software that checks for similar usernames during account registration is somewhat oversensitive—if the username is different enough that other people are unlikely to confuse the two users with one another, the request will usually be approved. Users should not choose a username that implies a relationship with an existing editor (unless the account is actually owned by that editor or the relationship is acknowledged by the editor themselves).

If your account's username is similar to that of another editor's account or to the title of an article, you may wish to provide some form of disambiguation, such as by adding {{distinguish}} to the top of your user page.

Commonly misspelled usernames

If your username is commonly misspelled, consider helping other editors locate your account more easily by creating redirects from the misspelled versions of your username to your user and user talk pages. You may consider registering the misspelled username as a doppelgänger account to prevent someone else from registering it. The MediaWiki software prevents the registration of new accounts with usernames that are too similar to existing usernames; if you cannot register your doppelgänger account for this reason, you can visit Wikipedia:Request an account for assistance.

UseModWiki-era usernames

UseModWiki, the software used on Wikipedia throughout 2001 and early 2002, handled edits by anonymous users differently from the modern-day MediaWiki software. Anonymous users at that time were treated in one of two ways:

• Domain names: Until about March 2001, an editor whose IPv4 address was "192.0.2.34" and was associated with the domain name "host.2.34.example.net" would have their edits logged under the name "host.2.34.example.net". Examples include office.bomis.com, dhcp-22-128.lclark.edu, and cnts2p46.uwaterloo.ca. Contributions by users with these usernames are affected by T2323. These usernames are usually indefinitely blocked on sight because (a) they don't make good usernames under the criteria described above, (b) they were never genuine usernames and would therefore have been abandoned when the software was migrated to MediaWiki, and (c) a block placed on "User:host.2.34.example.net" using the MediaWiki software will not affect an innocent contributor editing from an IP address that resolves to the domain "host.2.34.example.net".
• Redacted IP addresses: An editor whose IPv4 address was the same as the example above and was not associated with any domain name would have their edits logged under the name "192.0.2.xxx". All UseModWiki edits made after about March 2001, as well as edits made with the Phase II software, used this format. Examples include 209.69.30.xxx and 62.110.183.xxx.

IP addresses

After Wikipedia transitioned to MediaWiki, unregistered users were represented by unredacted IPv4 addresses (such as 86.150.12.90), and later by IPv6 addresses as well (such as 2001:0db8::8a2e:0370:7334), until the introduction of temporary accounts in November 2025. During this period, the terms "IP" and "IP user" were often used to refer to an unregistered user.

Temporary accounts

Main page: Wikipedia:Temporary accounts

Since November 2025, unregistered users are identified by a temporary account, which is automatically created for them when they publish an edit. Temporary accounts have a randomly-generated username that consists of a tilde, the year of creation, and a randomly generated number (such as ~2026-11994-61). Users have no control over the name of a temporary account, and temporary accounts cannot be renamed.

To prevent impersonation of unregistered users, registered account usernames cannot begin with ~2.

Shared accounts

See also: Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry § Role accounts

Any user account should represent an individual and not a group (and an individual should normally only have one user account; see § Using multiple accounts). Sharing an account – or the password to an account – with others is not permitted, and evidence of doing so will result in the user being required to stop the practice and change their password, or in sanctions (up to and including the account being blocked), depending on circumstances. For accounts being used to represent a group or organization, see § Promotional usernames and § Usernames implying shared use above.

Exceptions to this rule can be made for non-editing accounts approved to provide email access, accounts approved by the Wikimedia Foundation (see list), and bot accounts that are maintained by more than one contributor, provided the existence of such an arrangement is made clear and has consensus.

Using multiple accounts

Main page: Wikipedia:Sockpuppetry § Legitimate uses

It is recommended that contributors do not use multiple accounts without good reason. For example, a user may wish to create an alternate account for use on public computers as a precaution to keep their primary account more secure. Contributors operating any sort of automated editing process should do so under an alternative bot account. It is recommended that multiple accounts be identified as such on their user pages; templates such as {{User alternative account}} or one of a selection of user boxes may be used for this purpose.

The use of multiple accounts outside of established policy for doing so is known as sockpuppetry, and is not permitted. For example, multiple accounts may not be used to comment on proposals or requests, cast votes, or engage in edit warring. Because policies apply to individuals, not accounts, blocked or banned users must not use sock puppets to circumvent a block; doing so will result in an extension of the block or ban.

Changing your username

Usernames can be changed by global renamers; requests should be made at Wikipedia:Changing username. Once a username has been changed, existing contributions will be listed under the new name in page histories, diffs, logs, and user contributions. Signatures on discussion pages will continue to use the old name; while these can be changed manually, it is not recommended unless a contributor wishes to remove as much information as possible about their former name for privacy reasons. In such situations the old name will still be available in old versions of discussion pages, unless revision deletion is used and log entries are hidden from public view. Username changes are listed in the user rename log and the global rename log.

Deleting and merging accounts

Main page: Help:Delete account

It is not possible to delete user accounts. Editors seeking privacy per courtesy vanishing or right to vanish can usually have their accounts renamed and their user pages (and, in exceptional cases, user talk pages) deleted.

It is not currently possible to merge two or more user accounts on the English Wikipedia.

See also

• Wikipedia:Identification
• Wikipedia:Usernames for administrator attention
• Wikipedia:Naming conventions (technical restrictions) § Restrictions on usernames
• m:Help:Unified login