Registered users on the English Wikipedia are able to seek username changes. Any renames are now dealt at m:Steward requests/Username changes. However, any username changes still need to comply with username policy, changing username guidelines, or you could be blocked locally. Usernames which are offensive, promotional, disruptive, misleading, or confusing will be blocked on sight. Please read this entire page of guidance carefully before proceeding to the venue for making requests, listed below.

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• A rename moves your contributions and userspace pages to a new name, and preserves your account preferences.
• If the job queue is very busy, it might take a number of days before the software re-assigns all your contributions to your new name.

Limitations and restrictions:

• Accounts cannot be merged or deleted. They can only be renamed.
• It is not possible to re-assign edits identified with an IP address (made while not logged in).
• Our bureaucrats are no longer able to perform renames. All requests now need to be made through meta wiki.
• If the requested username is actively used on another Wikimedia project, the request will be declined to avoid creating new SUL conflicts.
• Your username cannot contain underscores and cannot start with a lowercase letter.
• Existing signatures and mentions of the old username in discussions are not affected by a rename.

Please consider the following alternatives to a rename:

• Although your username cannot begin with a lowercase letter, try placing {{ lowercase}} on your userpage in order to display it that way.
• If you simply want to change your "public appearance" on talk pages, you can change your signature. Note that this is not an alternative to changing your username if the name is in breach of the username policy.
• If you want to retire from Wikipedia, place {{ retired}} or a similar declaration on your userpage. A request for a rename to something like RetiredUser123 will be declined. Respected users wishing to vanish completely, perhaps by way of a rename to a random character string, are an exception to this rule.
• Users who have made very few edits are encouraged to register a new account and discard the old one. You can even copy your old watchlist to your new account. See Wikipedia:Clean start for additional rules and details.

Other things to consider:

• Using your real name as a username may put you at risk of harassment.
• Once you have been renamed, your old account name will no longer exist and could be recreated by a third party. To guard against impersonation, you may wish to recreate the old account yourself and make redirects.

Venues:

All renames now need to be made at m:Steward_requests/Username_changes. We cannot rename any users locally. For more information, see the change here