Everyone has a name, but some people are known by more than one. I am one of them. I grew up in Taiwan and all of my friends in Taiwan recognize me by my Chinese name, while the friends I've made after I moved abroad know me by my English name.

Both are part of my real identity, but until now I could only show one name in my Facebook account. This made it difficult for all of my friends to connect with me. I've even received messages from old friends asking who I was before they would approve my friend request because they didn't recognize my name, even though the profile photo looked familiar to them.

Last week, we added the ability for you to display such alternate names on Facebook. Previously you could associate another name with your account, so friends who knew you by that name could find you in search results. Now, you can further choose to also display your alternate name so it is visible on your profile, in search results, in friend requests and on other places on the site. It also will appear in parenthesis alongside your primary name.