Facebook changed its name from “TheFacebook” to “Facebook” in 2005.
The service launched at Harvard University in February 2004 under the name TheFacebook. The name referred to printed or online student directories commonly called “face books,” which helped students identify people at their school.
In August 2005, the company acquired the Facebook.com domain name and dropped “The” from its public name. The shorter name became the identity used as the service expanded beyond Harvard to other universities and eventually to users around the world.
The change is often confused with Facebook’s 2021 corporate rebrand to Meta. In 2021, the parent company changed its corporate name, but the social-networking service continued to be called Facebook. The 2005 change concerned the product’s name and happened many years earlier.