Ever since Google launched its Google+ social networking service, the company has not allowed people to sign up using names that were not their real names. However, Google has now realized there are a lot of people out there who are mostly known by their nicknames and other names that were not given to them at birth.

In a post on his Google+ page, team member Bradley Horowitz announced that starting later this week, " ... we’ll be adding support for alternate names – be they nicknames, maiden names, or names in another script – alongside your common name. This name will show up on your Google+ profile and in the hovercards which appear over your name."