Unique Alternatives when your email name is taken
Hey, my preferred account name is taken! This post will help describe how to find a unique account name when your preferred account name is taken.
For instance let’s try to get me a Gmail account that reflects my name. My name is Ian Hall and I’d love to have ianhall@gmail.com for an account. Unfortunately that account is taken.
So what are my options?
Use extra numbers. I could be ianhall1980@gmail.com but I don’t really want that do I? Nah, not creative enough.
Use your interests. I could be ianhallshootsguns@gmail.com but that probably won’t get me the job I’m looking for and might just get me flagged by government agencies, as would ianhalllikesponies@gmail.com
Get a handle. I could be t3hn1nj4z@gmail.com but that’s hard to remember and probably not going to get me that CTO job I’m eyeing (or any other job for that matter).
Shorten my account name. This usually works and there are a few methods. The preferred method is removing vowels so ianhall@gmail.com would become nhll@gmail.com. But with my name that’s not valid as Gmail accounts must be at least six characters. So I can’t deduct vowels to get “nhll” and that would look silly anyway.
Get your own domain. Then you can have ian@whateverdomain.com. Problem solved, but I want to have an @gmail.com account for a few reasons: permanence and it’s easy to remember unlike name@domain. And yes, I’m sure that for most of us name@domain is probably easy, but it can be tough for the nontechnical folks.
Add clever prefixes or suffixes to my name. Bingo, I like this idea. But what are some of the options?
- Himself or herself - ianhimself@gmail.com
- The or teh - tehian@gmail.com or theian@gmail.com
- Ask - askian@gmail.com
- Hey - heyian@gmail.com
- Yo - yoian@gmail.com, though it wouldn’t work for me as my name is short.
- $letter is for $name - iisforian@gmail.com, just substitute “I” for your first initial.
- Email - emailian@gmail.com
Got more ideas? Let us know!
Now these are just a few of the ideas I have, but I’m certain there are so many more out there. Post them in the comments. Let us know what you think and how you get around your email account being stolen. And if you don’t have any problem finding your desired account on any desired system, please don’t rub it in. It stings.
Really.
I wasn’t able to get my full name on GMail, but some initials + my last name did the trick. It’s long (thanks only to my last name), so I rarely give it out. No one ever wants to spell it correctly.
Instead, I have everything redirect to that GMail account. I may have a dozen or so email addresses for different things, but they all go to the same place so I only have to check one account to get it all.
I really like the yo[name] and hey[name] ideas. I may have to give them a try.