Choosing your display name and handle
For anyone at the “Create your name and handle” question — the rules the screen does not print, and what “That name is already taken” means.
Your display name is 2 to 80 characters and can be almost anything. Your handle is 3 to 40 characters and may only contain lowercase letters, digits, underscores and hyphens. Both are saved together when you press Continue.
The rules, in full
Display name
- 2 to 80 characters, counted after leading and trailing spaces are removed.
- Shown on your profile and in messages. The placeholder on the field is Yuna Moore.
Handle
- This is your @username, and it has to be unique.
- 3 to 40 characters, counted after spaces are removed and capitals are lowercased for you.
- Lowercase letters
a-z, digits0-9, underscore_and hyphen-only. Nothing else: no spaces, no full stops, no accented letters, no other punctuation.
If pressing Continue produces “Please check the highlighted field.” it is almost always one of the rules above: a character the handle may not contain, a handle that is too short or too long, or a display name of one character.
”That name is already taken. Try another.”
It means the handle you typed is already spoken for — by a creator, or by an application that is holding it.
An unfinished application holds the handle it typed, so a handle can be spoken for before any creator is using it publicly. The flip side is the useful one: if you typed a handle and stopped part way, it stays reserved to you for as long as your application sits there.
A handle can still be taken while you verify
This is the one thing worth being careful about.
Handles are claimed in the order accounts open, so a handle that was free when you typed it can be taken by somebody else while your identity check runs. You would find out at the very end, when you press Open my creator account — “That name is already taken.” By then your answers are locked, so ask support to set a different handle for you.
Pick a handle that is distinctly yours — an unusual spelling, a name with a number or a hyphen — rather than a common word, and this is unlikely to happen to you.
Changing them later
The question says “This is how fans find you. Both can be changed later.”
Inside setup, “later” means while your answers are still open: before the identity check starts, and again if the check comes back asking for another try. Move back with the back arrow, change either field, and press Continue to save both again.
While a check is in flight the wizard refuses changes with “Your answers are locked while we check your identity.” — see skipping, going back, and finishing setup later.