Google+ has been causing quite some controversy with their name policy after they deleted various accounts that had seemingly fake names. A friend of mine, who shares a name with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, had his account deleted and later restored. Some of the users who had their accounts deleted claimed they have lost access to Gmail, Google Docs and other Google services that were connected to their Google+ accounts.

To clear up some of the confusion, Google has created a help document that outlines their name policy. It clearly states that you must use your first and last name in one language, avoid unusual characters, have a profile and name that represent only one person and you are not permitted to use the name of someone else. Still, many users who comply with these rules are finding that their accounts have been suspended.

For example, ex-Google employee Kirrily “Scud” Robert had her account suspended on the basis of her name. In order to prove that her name was really her legal name, she was asked to submit links to websites that demonstrated her name or a scanned image of a photo ID with her personal information blacked out.

Tech blogger Robert Scoble spoke with Google’s Senior Vice President of Engineering, Vic Gundotra about Google+’s name policy and posted the details on his Google+ account. Gundotra told Scoble that Google+ isn’t asking users to use their real names, but rather common names. This is to help weed out people who are using fake names or oddly spelled names. If you are one of the unfortunate many who have a unique or oddly spelled name, your account is at risk, but not for long.

Google+’s Vice President of Product, Bradley Horowitz, issued a statement regarding the social network’s strict policy and how they’re working hard to fix it. He said:

We’ve noticed that many violations of the Google+ common name policy were in fact well-intentioned and inadvertent and for these users our process can be frustrating and disappointing. So we’re currently making a number of improvements to this process – specifically regarding how we notify these users that they’re not in compliance with Google+ policies and how we communicate the remedies available to them.

Horowitz said they’re working to make a number of improvements including giving users warnings and a chance to correct their violation before suspension. They’re looking at different ways to improve the signup process so users have the correct name right off the bat, and Horowitz encourages users to utilize the “other names” section of Google+ to display any names like maiden names or nicknames that might not be suitable for their profile name. He also assures users that violators of Google+’s name policy will not lose access to other Google services that don’t require a Google+ login, like Gmail or Google Docs, if their account is suspended.

Google+ is nearing its first month of existence and already has over 18 million users. Every time a new service opens its doors, there are bound to be problems. We must remember that the service is still invite only and isn’t yet open to the public, perhaps because they need to discover issues like this and figure out ways to improve.