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Change Your Legal Name in Brown Systems - Knowledgebase / Accounts and Passwords / Brown Account - OIT Service Center

Change Your Legal Name in Brown Systems

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Please note: this article is for legal name changes only. For preferred name changes see our article Change Your Preferred Name in Brown Systems.

1. First, change your name with the office of record for your primary affiliation at Brown

  • If you are a student, change your name with the Office of the Registrar
  • If you are faculty/staff, change your name in Workday (use the search function to find "Legal Name" and complete the task)
  • If you are a Sponsored ID (Brown affiliate), change your name with the Card Office at brown-card-office@brown.edu

2. Once you have confirmed that the office above has changed your legal name, submit an Access Request form with the type “Name Change”.

If you find this confusing and need some guidance, contact the IT Service Center and ask to speak with Computing Accounts and Passwords. This step will change your Brown username and email address to match your legal name. Your old email address will be added as an alias so you can still receive email sent to that address.

3. Confirm and update your Gmail settings

  • A day after your access request is completed, verify that your display name is correct in Gmail - an old name may have ‘stuck’ if you customized it in the past. To do this, go to Settings (the Gear icon), Accounts, and then click the “edit info” link next to your email account if necessary.
  • Your name in the auto-complete Gmail directory will update, but it will take 24 hours.
  • You may still receive emails that show your old email address and/or name. This does not mean the name change wasn’t effective, but that the person emailing you just has your old information stored; you cannot control how others have your information saved in their contacts.

4. Pick up your new ID card at the Brown Card Office

  • There is no fee for a name change as long as you return your previous ID.

5. There may be additional systems not merged with Brown’s single sign-on in which you can only change your name yourself.

For example, Google+ is one of these services.

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Contact the OIT Service Center

Phone: 401-863-4357

Email: help@brown.edu

Location: Page Robinson Hall - 69 Brown St., Room 510

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https://it.brown.edu/get-help

Walk-ins Welcome! Appointments recommended.

For reserved service for a technical consult or a loaner check-out, you can schedule an appointment here.