Put the document you plan to upload on the desk in front of you before you start. The name that identity verification asks you to type and confirm is not what friends call you, and it is not the spelling you think a name ought to have. It is the line printed on that particular document. Uploading a passport means copying the name from the data page, surname in the surname field and given names in the given-name field. Uploading an ID card printed only in Chinese characters means copying those characters exactly.
One way this goes wrong is mixing two documents: the upload is a passport but the form gets the Chinese-character name, or the passport prints one spelling and the form gets the one you normally sign with. Below, first where the name is shown back to you, then how to read each kind of document.
Where the platform asks you to confirm the name
Taking Binance as the example, its help article on completing identity verification for a personal account (the page in the screenshot above) starts the process from the Account menu, with a verification button on the home page banner as a shortcut. On the website the order runs like this: choose your country of residence, the country that issued your document and the document type; upload the document; complete the face check; and only then reach a screen that lists your personal details with a Continue button. Name, nationality and date of birth are all on that one screen.
The help centre asks that everything entered there match your identity document and says the details cannot be changed once you confirm them (see How to Complete Identity Verification for a Personal Account). So the few seconds before you press Continue are the ones to slow down for. Hold the document next to the screen and read the name aloud against it: surname first, pause, then the given names. If it is a romanised name, go letter by letter, and stop at the first letter that does not match.
Which line on your document is the surname
A passport does the splitting for you. Most passports follow the machine-readable layout set by the International Civil Aviation Organization: the data page has a line labelled Surname and a separate line labelled Given names, and in the two lines of code along the bottom the surname is separated from the given names by two < characters. Because the labels are standard, trust the label rather than the order in which you would say the name out loud. A Chinese passport prints each label in Chinese and English, with the capitalised pinyin underneath.
A mainland Chinese resident ID card is different. Its name field is a single row of characters with no gap between family name and given name. If the form offers one full-name box, copy the row as it stands. If it offers separate boxes, you split it yourself: for most people the family name is the first character, and for a two-character family name it is the first two.
| Document in your hand | Surname field comes from | Given-name field comes from | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Passport from most countries | The line labelled Surname | The line labelled Given names, middle names included | Write middle names in full as printed, not as initials |
| Chinese passport | The pinyin under Surname | The pinyin under Given names | All capitals, no space inside the given name |
| Chinese resident ID card | The first character of the name row (first two for a two-character surname) | The rest of the same row | Do not swap a rare character for a common one that sounds the same |
Three places a pinyin spelling drifts
If you verify with a Chinese passport, the mismatches to guard against come from typing what the name should look like instead of what the data page shows. These three need the most care:
- The given name is one word. A June 2025 notice on passport names from the Chinese Embassy in Spain (in Chinese) says outright that there should be no space inside a Chinese given name. If the passport reads XIAOMING, the form should not say XIAO MING.
- Characters with ü. For names such as 吕 or 女, older passports may show LV or NU; the same notice says these are now written LYU and NYU, with a note added on the observations page. Type whatever the passport you are uploading actually shows. Do not “correct” an older passport to the newer spelling.
- A surname built from both parents’ surnames. The same embassy notice says such a made-up compound surname is not accepted as one: only the first character is treated as the surname and the second moves into the given name. The resident ID card, printing everything in one row, gives no hint of this; the passport splits it across two lines, so follow the passport.
An English name you use at work — Tony, Grace — is a separate matter. According to the same notice it does not go into the passport’s main name fields and can only be added as an observation. The verification form wants the main line from the data page, so leave the English name out of the given-name box and do not add it as a middle name either.
You already clicked Continue, and the name is wrong
Opening a second account to start over is not the fix. Confirmed details cannot be edited by you directly; the route is the Update Identity option on the identity verification page, where you pick a reason from a drop-down list and then choose the issuing country and document type again. Binance’s article on updating identity information says that if your reason is not in the list, contact customer support.
That article does not list the reasons itself, but Binance’s help page “How to Complete Identity Verification for a Personal Account?” names seven grounds for Update Identity (checked September 2026; also covered in our guide to verification levels): expired documents, a changed name on the document, a changed ID number, a changed nationality, updating documents for a specific fiat channel, changing the name to a system-recognizable language, and meeting Binance Card requirements. A legal name change fits the second. Moving from a Chinese-character ID to the pinyin name on your passport fits the sixth, which the help page illustrates with exactly that kind of switch from a local-language ID card to an English-language passport. A plain typo of your own is not among the seven, so support is the way through.
Know the cost before you start. The same article says that once you submit an update, the account is temporarily limited to withdrawals only until the new details are reviewed, so pick a stretch of time when you are not planning to deposit or trade.
The confirmed name becomes the yardstick for later papers
Whatever name is stored at verification is what later documents get compared against. Source-of-funds documents requested for higher tiers are expected to be issued in your name and to match the account name, and a proof of address has to match too; the checks for that one are in what to check on a proof of address before you upload.
That makes the choice of document worth a second look. If your bank statements and utility bills all carry the romanised name, verifying with your passport keeps the stored name in the same form and later comparisons go smoothly; if every bill you hold is in Chinese characters, the ID card version may save trouble instead. Lay out the papers you are likely to be asked for next alongside the ID before you choose.
For rejections that have nothing to do with the name — glare on the photo, an expired document, a failed face check — the order of checks is in Binance KYC failed: what to check, and what your current tier allows, including where its limits are listed, is covered in where the withdrawal limit is shown. The steps described here follow the Binance help centre and embassy notice as they read in September 2026; button labels can change when the platform updates its screens, so go by the wording on your own screen.