LinkedIn Verification: When Identity Becomes a Profile
Until recently, I didn’t think much about LinkedIn verification. You show you are who you say you are — simple enough. Maybe a handy badge, a bit of extra trust. But lately, a few things I read and experienced made me look at it differently.
Here’s what struck me: verification on LinkedIn isn’t just a check. It becomes your profile. And that’s something else entirely.
What does verification actually mean?
In the classic sense, verification is temporary: a quick check to confirm your identity. You show your passport, enter a code, and move on. It’s a moment — not a statement.
On LinkedIn, though, verification is baked into your public identity. Your name, as it appears on your ID, becomes the name on your profile. No room for additions. No brand names. No nuance. What starts as a confirmation becomes a fixed label — your digital business card.
It doesn’t work equally for everyone
I only began to notice this when I started paying attention to how people present themselves. Women with hyphenated or combined last names. Freelancers with a trade name or brand. Creatives who use a pseudonym or add a descriptor to their name. People with cultural naming structures that don’t match Western conventions.
That’s where friction starts. LinkedIn doesn’t allow company names in your surname field. Or personal additions like “| AI Consultant” next to your name. At the same time, the official rules do allow for shortened first names or nicknames.
So you can be “Rob” even if your ID says “Robertus Johannes”. It’s not that strict — but the system still suggests that your real name should match your official name, and that suggestion tends to steer people toward conformity.
The space for interpretation exists — but it’s not openly encouraged. And that can make it harder to claim a professional identity that doesn’t fit neatly into standard forms.
So why verify in the first place?
LinkedIn suggests verification is for your benefit: more trust, more visibility, fewer bots. But in practice, the clearest effect is this: your profile becomes locked. And if your identity is more layered, dynamic, or context-specific, that lock may not serve you.
For Microsoft, the value is clear — more verified profiles mean better data, better targeting, and more confidence for recruiters and advertisers. For users, it’s worth asking: what are you giving up in exchange for that badge?
A gentle note
I’m not making a grand statement here. Just a side note. A shift in perspective. I’ve always used my legal name online. But I’m starting to see that there’s often space between who you officially are and how you want to be seen.
And allowing that space — even just a little — makes room for a more practical, more recognisable, more human way of being present online.
Rob Hoeijmakers
