One of the best things about Discord is the ease and freedom you have to hop around and be a part of multiple server communities for various purposes. Perhaps you’re the type of person who uses it for strict gaming; even then, you may have multiple gaming communities, guilds, or groups you enjoy communicating with daily.
There may come a time when your current nickname no longer defines you, and you want to change. Maybe you just want to add something to it for a special occasion or holiday. The beauty of Discord is that it allows you to change your nickname to whatever you want so long as the server owner has granted the proper permissions.
“I have those permissions but what do I do to change my nickname?”
I’ve got you covered.
Changing Your Discord User Nickname
You can alter or edit your current Discord nickname in a few ways. Remember that you can change your nickname and what’s seen by everyone else in the user list for each server, you’re a member of. Also, changing your nickname does not change your account username, and people can still locate you using it if they choose.
Of the three options you have to change your nickname, we’ll start with a more in-depth method.
The Short Way
Since the 2023 username updates by Discord, you can now only change your server usernames, not your actual username.
- Click the server settings menu bar at the top portion of the Discord window. It will have the server name in it and a downward-facing arrowhead off to the right of it.
- From the drop-down menu, click on Edit Server Profile.
- Here, you can enter your new nickname into the field where your current one is located. Once you’ve typed it in and are satisfied, click the green Save Changes button.
The Shorter Way
If you fancy using slash commands for all the clicking and scrolling by typing ‘/nick’ into the message input area (followed by a space) and then entering your new nickname, you can change it—a far quicker solution than those mentioned previously.
You can do this for every server you can access, so long as your current role within that server group allows you to change it.
Managing Names Across Multiple Servers
If you’re the owner of a server, you have the option to change and manage the nicknames of anyone who joins. There are two permissions dedicated to nickname usage:
Read: How To Generate Cool Usernames for Discord
Enabling “Change Nickname” will permit users to change their nickname on your server. This is also the case if you’re on a server owned by someone else. If this permission has not been checked, you’re stuck with the nickname you had when you came in. That is unless the owner chooses to change your nickname.
By enabling “Manage Nicknames” on your server, permission is given to users to access the “Members” server setting only. This allows anyone to change other members’ nicknames within that server so long as they are members. Of course, if you are the owner, you have this power intrinsically, but permission must be granted by a server owner if you happen to be on a different server than your own.
Changing other members’ nicknames is rather simple:
- Just access the Members tab in Server Settings.
- In the “Server Members” area, hover over the member whose username you wish to change. This will pull up three vertical dots off to the right. Click the dots to open up more options and choose Change Nickname.
- Fill out the member’s new nickname in the box provided and click Save when finished.
Everyone who accesses the server will see the newly updated nicknames off to the right in the Member Section.
You cannot change your nickname if the server owner has denied you a role with the “Change Nickname” permission. Even with a slash command, Clyde will only provide a sad message for you:
Conclusion
Remember that even if you’re trying to keep a low profile or go incognito with a fresh nickname, anyone who wants to can still click on your user profile to discover your true name.
Interestingly enough, you can still perform @mentions using both the new nickname and the original. The normal Discord features that require knowing someone’s username will still apply.
So, even if the new nickname is completely unrelated to the original, you can still @mention them. An example would be ‘Konquezt’ as the original name but opting for ‘I M A Gawd’ on the current server you’re trying to @mention.
Visually, the name would show as ‘I M A Gawd,’ but you could type in @Kon (or the full name). Discord will always remember and refer to the original username. This function also applies when searching for users in the Members tab of the Server Settings. You now know how to change your nickname on Discord!
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