LinkedIn Enables Users To Add Secondary Names for ID Verification

LinkedIn’s looking to make it easier for people who use alternate names to get verified in the app, by enabling the use of your real name when listed as a secondary title, when going through the verification process.

LinkedIn’s voluntary ID verification option, which adds a checkmark to your profile indicating that you’ve confirmed your details via government-issued ID (via an approved third party), has already been taken up by around 80 million LinkedIn members, providing more assurance of your professional identity.

But some people don’t actually use their real name online, and LinkedIn’s looking to cater to them as well, with some new provisos in the process.

In order to verify your presence, you now can add your legal name as an additional moniker to be displayed alongside your LinkedIn name. 

“This will not replace your LinkedIn name but your legal name will appear in parenthesis after it.  Your ID name will also not be visible on public profiles to anyone who is not logged in to LinkedIn.”

As you can see in this example, by adding an additional name, that secondary title will then be displayed in brackets after your screen name, which will then give LinkedIn another ID to check your government details against.

To be clear, the option to add a secondary profile name has existed for some time, but now, you can also use this within the verification process, in order to meet the requirements of LinkedIn’s data matching systems.

LinkedIn further notes that deleting your ID name will remove both your legal name and your identity verification.

LinkedIn also clarifies that if you do choose to include your actual name as a secondary identifier, it will not be displayed on your public profile, to visitors who are not logged into LinkedIn, or in public search engine results.

So there are some protections built in if you don’t want to have your real name listed. But now, you also have options to verify your profile in such circumstances.

That won’t cater to all use cases, but it does provide expanded opportunity, and more options for users to participate in LinkedIn’s voluntary verification process.

You can learn more about LinkedIn’s account verification options here.