Google+/username/changing

About

There are at least two different methods for changing one's username in Google+.

Official

The official method is as follows:

1. Go to your "profile" page (click on the 3rd icon from the Google+ logo at the top of the page)
2. Click on the blue "edit profile" button near the top right corner of the page
3. Click on your username (top line of text below the menu bar, in a large font)
4. Edit and save
5. A confirmation dialog will pop up; you can either "cancel" or "change name".
   • The dialog includes some warning text; see #Messages below
   • One of the messages in the dialog claims you will not be able to change your username again for "up to 3 months".

Alternate

One alternate method is as follows:

1. Click on your username in the menu bar -- this will open a drop-down menu
2. Click on "Account settings" in the drop-down menu
3. In the second section, called "Email addresses and usernames", there is a subsection called "Email addresses"
   • in my settings, this is the only subsection --Woozle 10:07, 25 January 2012 (EST)
4. Underneath the email address(es), there is an "edit" link
5. Click the "edit" link
6. This takes you to the Google accounts editor
   • clicking that link without following the other instructions might work fine; I haven't tested it yet...
7. You can edit your name (first and last) from there
   • Both first and last are required, however.
   • The closest you can get to a mononym, without official Google approval, is to put a "." in the "last name" field.
8. When you save your edits, there are no warning messages... and you can go back in and change it again anytime.

Messages

This is the text of the warning you see when you attempt to change your username through the official method (as of 2012-01-25):

People change their names infrequently in the real world, so Google+ limits how often you can change your profile name. If you change your profile name now, you can’t change it again for up to three months. Learn more

Changing your profile name changes it in all Google products, such as Gmail. Learn more