First things first, your journey for a new display name begins at the main menu of Modern Warfare 3. After all, it hosts most of the game’s settings!
While you’re in the main menu, press the Options button if you’re playing with a controller.
If you’re playing with a mouse and keyboard, just click on the multi-rectangle icon on the top right.
Either way, switch over to the Settings tab on the rightmost side of the Options menu. It has a huge gear icon, so it’s hard to miss!
The bottom option in the Settings tab is “Account & Network”, and that’s exactly where you have to go. Click on it or select it with your controller.
Next up, select “Activision Account” in the new menu.
You should now see a breakdown of your Activision ID and display name.
Select the “Change Display Name” option in the bottom center of the screen. Your new identity is almost ready!
All you gotta do now is to type your new display name into the text box and select Confirm. This will restart Modern Warfare 3 to log you back in, now using your new display name.
There are some limitations to this, however, so you can’t just change your name around willy-nilly.
The first limitation is that you have to use up one Rename Token. You’ll get Rename Tokens automatically every 6 months, which effectively means you get one name change every 6 months.
Profanity and such can’t be used in your display name either, as you might imagine, and the profanity filter makes sure to warn you if you do.
Despite these limitations, though, now you know what to do if you ever wish to change your display name in MW3!