by Jennifer Eblin

Created on: November 26, 2007

John Cusack, James Lord, Gavin Gay, and Scott Beer. What do those four men have in common? Apparently they are not allowed to register on Facebook.

Facebook is a large social networking site akin to Myspace. Users can register, upload pictures, add friends to their page, and leave comments for those friends or invite them to events. One of the problems that some people face on these social networking sites, is being rejected by potential friends they want to add. Now they have something else to worry about. If their name isn't allowed by the site, they will not even have the chance to start a page, and make friends.

The first indication that something was wrong with the system was when two individuals were deemed as having an "illegitimate name". These names prohibited them from registering for the site. Those two names? Lord, and Beta. It almost seems funny that these names are banned from the site, but banned they are. And they are far from the only ones banned.

Take for instance the case of actor John Cusack. Cusack is most famous for playing the goofy yet loveable and romantic character of Lloyd Dawbler in the 1980s comedy Say Anything. He has since gone on to portray roles in Identity, 1408, Pushing Tin, and Con Air. Yet when Cusack attempted to register at Facebook, he was also given the "illegitimate name" response, only this time he was told that the name was illegal because it belonged to a celebrity. Other celebrity or famous names not allowed by Facebook include Paris Hilton, Tori Spelling, and George Bush.

Not every name rejected by Facebook is a celebrity name, some are simply names that the site doesn't believe are real names. As the site doesn't allow fake profiles, they believe that blocking certain names will stop fake profiles from overrunning the site. In theory this is a good practice as some other social networking sites have an abundance of fake profiles, but this actually blocks normal people from registering on the site.

The names that are blocked by Facebook include Beer, Gay, Lord, Jelly, Beta, Duck, and anything with Gay in the name. They also prohibit anyone with a first or last name of two letters to join the site. Apparently their policy requires a name by three characters or longer. The site also bans anyone with the name Doe, and some Smith's as they say the names are "too common".

Recently the site has attempted to help users who cannot register by giving them a chance to speak directly with someone over the telephone. If they can prove that their name is real, than they are allowed to register. Unfortunately this has come too little, too late for some who have decided not to use Facebook, and to go to another social networking site.

Learn more about this author, Jennifer Eblin.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.