How to pick an email address

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Any suggestions for picking an email address? I'm trying to help someone create and then start migrating their primary email address from a custom domain name over to Gmail. Their full name @gmail.com is gone. Their first two initials and late name at Gmail are gone. I'm against putting personal information such as birth years on the end of email addresses. Any other suggestions for creating email addresses that are personal and professional looking? Buying their name domain name is also already registered under .com.
 

foggy

Valued Member
Hi, Ray

Well, this is really none of my business :rolleyes:, but...

1. If the person already has a domain name why migrate over to Gmail and look for a "professional" username ? Don't most 'experts' on email netiquette say that it's more "professional" to have one's own domain than to use a Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail address ? Why not just switch the present domain over to Google Apps ?

2. What's wrong with registering their name at something other than .com ? Like: .net ? .biz ? etc. Then host with Google Apps.

3. For Gmail specifically: How about lastname.firstname @ gmail ? Or lastname.first and middle initials @ gmail ? Or part of the names (like Scott Johnson would become "johnsco @ gmail"). I believe those are considered acceptable and professional username styles. They may not be pretty, but then professional looking usernames/email addresses usually aren't. ;)

4. FWIW, I know Gmail is one of the few email providers that allow users to have a username that begins with a number. Of course, that would be of more interest, I suppose, to someone who's not using it for professional purposes (like: 2t_sweet; 2poor2care; 40winks; etc.). Not sure if there's a more professional sounding username that would start with a number, unless one would use a street address (123mainst @ gmail)....
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
They have a custom domain that is a business domain name. It is tied to a web site that they might sell someday. I ran into a similar problem a few years ago. I used a business domain name as my personal email address and went through some troubles after selling that web site. It would be the same as if I used ray@emailquestions.com as my email address and sold the site someday. Keep personal and business domains and email addresses separate is the lesson that I learned.
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
Spam filters trigger heavier against email addresses and domain names that start with numbers. I'd avoid ever registering domains or creating email addresses that start with numbers. For the Gmail all of their name combinations are gone. It's a common enough name where it;'s probably been gone for years even when including the middle initial. Yeah, I should probably help them look into a domain name that isn't under .com. I just like my .com's maybe because they rank better easier with Google but that isn't really a concern in this case.
 

foggy

Valued Member
Ah. Thanks for the information, Ray. I didn't know that about spam filters and number-first usernames !
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
We ended up going with their name dot com but also had to add their middle initial into their full name to get a personal dot com domain name.
 

Big Dan

EQ Forum Moderator
Why not just create a generic name @ gmail.com and forward your domain based email into it? If you sell the domain just change your email address to a new domain. I've used name+area code@gmail.com and name+last 4 digits of phone@gmail.com

I use forwards into Gmail primarily from 2 domains I never plan on selling: myname.com and nickname.us. The rest of my domain based forwards are used as business addresses for the domain. If something is going to webmaster@domain.com there's a good chance it will be useful to the new owner should I decide to sell the domain.
 

foggy

Valued Member
After re-reading this thread (and specifically my own point 3 in post #2), I've begun thinking about username formats and am wondering if there is any formally accepted convention regarding them. I realize email usernames can be just about anything one wishes (using only letters, numbers, underscores, a dot), but are there formats that are more 'acceptable' than other and more professional sounding when using one's name ?

E.g. I know of:

firstname(.)lastname
firstinitial(.)lastname
firstandmiddleinitials(.)lastname
lastname(.)firstinitial
lastname(.)firstname

But I'm beginning to second-guess my comment above that people can/may use parts of first and/or last names, like "Lisa Thompson" having a username of "lisa.thomp" or "lthomp" or "thomli" or "thomp.lisa" or something. And again I only ask if there might be any general consensus regarding acceptable formats for business. Just curious.

I've been searching online for pages that address this but haven't found anything very informative as yet. Anything I find usually only mentions the first two options above and maybe the last.

It's hardly a big deal, but if anyone knows of any place where there might be a discussion of this I'd be glad to know about it.
 

EQ Admin

EQ Forum Admin
Staff member
I think lase name or first name + last name or first initial + last name at Gmail looks better than anything at Yahoo or Hotmail.

Businesses should have their own custom domain name for their business.

Personal email accounts should not be created within your business domains.

If people want to get their own personal domain name that's better than a free account since you'll have better support that what generally is associated with a free email account.

My past problem and the problem I'm trying to avoid that kicked this off this discussion originated from problems due to my using email accounts under a business domain as personal email accounts and then later wanting to sell the web site and domain name.
 
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