Some usernames are mistakenly blocked by swear filter

I used to play Minecraft a lot around 7-8 years ago, and I feel like I would play a lot more nowadays if my current name wasn't a safety concern to myself. If I play the game, I have to play on an alt account, and that's really annoying because all of my memories playing the game are on my original account. This has been an issue I've been fighting on and off for the past couple of years, and I'd like to finally put it to rest.

It'd help even if there was just a way we could submit a username request, if the desired username is mistakenly blocked. I'd really like to have Sappho in my username because she means a lot to me and is my inspiration, but it sucks that there's just no way to appeal that (as far as I'm aware, at least) for my case or anyone else's. 😞

It won’t let me use the username Chinchilla

Even if I tried choosing my username as SlimySpeck, they still block that word, Mojang is gonna fix these issues in another update

Honestly, I hope that this can be fixed one day, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this is Microsoft's doing. This used to not be an issue back when I played the game before Microsoft owned it, and I've heard that the Xbox Live filter has similar problems. With the migration to Microsoft accounts, Microsoft will gain even more control over this. I'd like to be optimistic, but as the days pass, it seems less and less likely.

This isnt related to Microsoft at all. The swear filter was just updated over the years and it just caused a scunthorpe problem with names like tRAPEzoid and grASSHOpper and tamboURINE

I do agree that more likely than not, Microsoft didn't have anything to do with this. It was just a theory after all, and to be fair, I was being a bit dramatic. Nevertheless, I still think something needs to be done.

I understand that Mojang is a relatively small team, and that Minecraft is literally the biggest game ever, but some issues on here have been going on for a year or even more without even a simple response. They've sold hundreds of millions of copies, and are literally owned by Microsoft, one of the largest companies on the planet. I feel like they have the potential resources but just don't feel like using them. I could be completely wrong, as I don't work in this industry, but I feel like a bit more could be done.

honestly mojang just doesnt really care about blocked usernames or anything in general. this has been a problem since atleast 2016 and im sure its been reported thousands of times. if they were to unblock something they would probably just do it privately with no announcement so the username just drops as they did with "Pedo"

Please, I've linked my Xbox Microsoft account to my Java account but it won't let me modify my Java username because it says is offensive when is not. Shaggy from Scooby Doo + Toph (shaggytoph) is not offensive at all and is not taken, so it should work. This is my Xbox gamertag and I have this name everywhere why is it Minecraft causing all of this problems? Is not offensive. My workaround was changing the sh for a J but I don't like it at all, I just want to be able to use  my real username

Can we get some sort of update on this? I feel like enough people are backing this at this point to warrant some sort of response.

I just learned the other day that this phenomenon is called the "Scunthorphe problem".

While I agree that an update to our filter would be good to make, we won't be making investments to fix this problem until we are completely done with account migration.

 I remember that back in the day, this happened with PlayStation and the option to change usernames wasn't available at all, their argument was "It's very difficult and not worth the investment" so Xbox came with the solution: — "It is indeed difficult, but since is so important for some of you, you can just pay us a fee and we will change your username/gamertag." Like 10 years later, Playstation finally decided to implemented this. IMHO I think this is the solution here too, I would gladly pay in special cases so my name gets reviewed and accepted. 

Thanks for the response. I don't mind waiting, I just wanted to know if any change was being considered. Glad to know that's the case.

@shaggytoph as the person with the most amount of name changes(82) pls do not suggest making name changes paid thank you

I said only when the system won't let you because it says is offensive (my case), therefore only when it needs someone from support assisting you in that specific case, not always like in your case

Any time frame for when work will start? Q1 2022 maybe? I'm guessing work on account migration is about done at this point.

Hi!
I've been having the same problem I wanted to change my name to "nothisiskate" and it says its offensive I thought it may be taken but I looked it up and its available, I also tried adding underscore and numbers but it still unavailable because its 'offensive', I don't know if there is a reason why its offensive or maybe just a mistake so I wanted to add a comment.
thanks for your time🙂

Kate, that's because it says ISIS and somehow that's offensive nodaways. So you will need to wait till they do something but I don't think they will. What if you replace the i with a lowercase letter L? it could be NoThislsKate or something like that

They'll likely eventually work on this, but it seems like they are very understaffed. We're just gonna have to wait a long time for it.

This is more of a suggestion, but I feel like it fits contextually to the situation so I'll post it here. A good solution to the issue might be to just take the name filter that Xbox Live uses, and somehow translate it over to MC. I'm not much of a coder, but I feel like it would be much easier to port the code over from the Xbox system to the MC system than build an entirely new system from scratch, especially since they're now both under the same account due to migration. Multiple people here have their desired name with no issue as their Xbox Gamertag, but can't have it as their MC name due to the filter issue. I feel like this would be the simplest solution that would still fix most people's issues.

A bug was reported about [janusz845], where's the substring here? I cannot see any swear, I think there are more errors than this.

@DanielGolan janusz845

From what I've heard, butt isn't censored, but anus is? I feel like there is a big inconsistency issue here with the substrings being blocked. To clarify, I don't think either should be censored at all, but it's weird that one is censored but not the other, since they both share the same meaning.

how come there's random words like "animate" that don't even have any bad language anywhere in them banned? this is just ridiculous

I'm not exactly sure how long ago this was, but it seems that they recently updated the look of the profile section on the minecraft website, including the area where you change your username. However, the filter seems unchanged at the moment. Since the web team is already currently working on that section of the site, I think now would be a good time to attempt to implement some filter changes.

Given the recent chat reporting update, I feel like Mojang/Microsoft are doing more to censor the game while ignoring all of the false positives that come with a filter. Filters are ok if they actually do their job correctly, but in Mojang's case they haven't had the best track record so far (chat filter in bedrock edition is easy to bypass and is riddled with false positives). I would like to stay optimistic, but they make it harder and harder as time passes.

If you're not ever planning on fixing this directly, you could at the very least implement what @shaggytoph talked about back in October. This is very important to some of us and I don't think you would need that much manpower to review a couple of names every once in a while.

Can confirm it's still an issue as "GamingEinstein" is not allowed because it contains the word "m*nge", which is a British slang for the female genitals.
Luckily replacing any of the letters seems to make it work...

names like "chinchilla" are good examples of this

Janusz, which is a Polish common name, is blocked by the swear filter too.

i am having trouble, any name i enter says it is offensive, my old username "GrenFlem" is blocked, there is nothing offensive about this name, its just a misspelling of greenflame, please let me have my old username back. 

I bougth the game recently just to find out that my nickname (Aszi) that everyone calls me since I was a little kid is somehow offensive. I was like... Oh, okay, I use my surname/last name (Asztalos) then, because lots of people call me with my last name... Well, seems like my own name is also too offensive to play Minecraft... Is this a bad April Fools joke in December or what? Why is a hungarian last name so offensive?

The nickname "deusa" goddess in Portuguese appears as not available, but looking in namemc it is available, there is nothing offensive about this name, even the nickname "deus" (god in Portuguese) is used by a player so I believe this is an error.

In around mid-December 2022 tons of these names blocked due to the Scunthorpe problem where unblocked and taken by users, I’m not sure if this was due to them fixing the problem internally or them messing up the filter system. Since other blocked names that should’ve stayed blocked also got unblocked resulting in usernames with slurs and other stuff. The working theory is that at the time a Mojang employee named rehnarama was messing with the filter system at the time and might’ve messed something up. (Source from the employees MoJira account)

If just a single employee caused that, why are they making us wait a tons of months & no solution? People here just want their real names, yet Mojang doesn't care, only when it happens to their employees. I've been trying to change my username every single month to see if they fixed the filter but it never works, I tried in December too. I'm sure people here have lost respect for Mojang. I hope they try to win it back with a solution. 

For a brief period in mid-December 2022 the Scunthorpe problem was fixed but it was later reverted due to many bypasses being found with capitalization to put slurs in your name. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

The theory about that one Mojang employee was pure speculation, and most of the people commenting here shouldn't even be here, they are commenting about the wrong issue entirely, most of the people here are experiencing a entirely different issue not involving the swear word filter since that issue has already been fixed, most people here are having issues with it saying that the username is already taken, this is due to the username only being in the name history database and no where else. The Scunthorpe problem has already been fixed. Thus this issue can be resolved, someone will need to make a new one about the username taken issue.

The name filter for some names in Spanish is failing, a lot of words are blocked and they shouldn't be Examples: Noche Tormenta Tristeza Menor

I have the same problem with the name "chxat" and I've had the name twice in the past but recently when I wanted to change it back it got blocked by the swear filter and I contacted to support but with no help.

Hello, could someone help me pinpoint what is causing it here?

Just a theory but maybe you need to secure it as an Xbox gamertag first. That's what I did with my username & now it lets me use it in Minecraft dot net, even though it was considered offensive before. 

It's telling me this tag is also not allowed, still not sure why...

what does mojang have against a man of pies ? i try any name with "pieman" in it it's blocked but yet there are some people who got that name why cant i, pieman have that name too ):

The issue says 

Resolution:Fixed

even tho it's not even fixed. it's been 3+years
I can't set my username "TamimZaman99" for this issue, the username is being used in bedrock edition but can't change for Java profile

This also happens when changing Realm names.

Mojang should definitley work on this soon... I want to go back to being S1lk08 and not S1lkO8 😞