Here are some general guidelines for students:
Use your legal name - what appears on your Social Security Card (if you have one). Do NOT put your nickname nor your preferred name.
Include your middle initial and suffix - If your legal name includes a middle name or a suffix (even if you never use them), include them here, if they're part of your legal name.
Don't have those? The "Middle initial" & "Suffix" fields are not required-- so leave them blank if they're not applicable to you
Long name? The FAFSA® has a limit of 12 characters for the first name and 16 characters for the last name. If your name is too long, just type as much of it as you can.
Middle initial - Use the first letter of your first middle name (if you have multiple)
Have special characters? The government FAFSA® will only accept letters (A-Z), numbers (0-9), apostrophes ('), dashes (-), or blanks (spaces) in name fields. No other characters are allowed. So if you're trying to enter an accented vowel or special characters like í, é, ø, ü, or ñ, use the plain letter instead (for example, e instead of é).
Note: Parent information does not require a middle initial or suffix. Be sure to use each parent's full first legal name and full last legal name.