changing your username

how often you can change it

once every 90 days, and no more than 2 times in any twelve month stretch. the settings page tells you whether you're eligible right now, and if not, the date you become eligible again. the limit exists so that a username stays a reliable way to recognize someone.

what happens to your old username

• it is retired. nobody can register it, and neither can you. an admin can put it back on your account if a change was a mistake, but it is never handed to anyone else.
• your old posts, replies, and blog entries go to your new username.
• links and mentions that used the old name will not find you. there is no redirect, so tell anyone who needs to know.

the recently renamed marker

for 30 days after a change, a small tag appears next to your name wherever it shows up. hovering over it says that the account changed its username recently.

picking a new one

• it can't be taken by another member, reserved by the site, or a name that anyone has retired by renaming.
• it can't look like an email address. a username is an alias, not an identity.
• usernames are stored in lower case, so capitalization isn't a way to claim a name that's already in use.

security and your other devices

changing your username requires your current password, and the change is written to your security log, where you can review it alongside logins and password changes. only you and the site admins can see that log. your other signed-in devices will need to reconnect after the change; they do this on their own, though you may have to reload a page.

if an admin changes it for you

admins can rename an account, usually to deal with a name that breaks the rules. those changes don't use up your own allowance, so you can still change it yourself afterward. they appear in your security log too, and the recently renamed marker shows up the same way.