How To Create A Cool Email Address

Everything on the internet seems to be out of stock these days. Be it your favorite twitter handle or even a domain name of your choice, I am sure, we all have been through this frustration of not being able to pick our favorite names on the internet. Finding good email names for your personal email address is even a more common and frustrating problem. Perhaps it's too late to choose "firstname.lastname@gmail.com" as your professional email address? Unless you have a unique name, the chances of finding good email usernames like this are very low. Someone else might have already taken all those clever email name ideas which you have now thought of. Thanks to the digital explosion! But hey, don't get disappointed. In this post today, I will share some really useful ideas and creative tips to help you choose good email names for your personal and professional needs. The best part is that these tips still work very well in 2021. So, let's get started.

Characteristics Of Good Email Names:

Before we discuss the tips to choose professionally good email names, let's discuss some of their ideal characteristics:

They comprise your first and last name
They are short, easy to pronounce, and remember
Good email names do not contain random numbers & special characters — except dot, underscores & hyphens.
They are free from adjectives/words of self-conceit — like hot, cool, sweet, handsome, pretty, cute, ultimate, powerful, etc
They must represent you and indirectly reflect your personality
A professional email name should not include nicknames.

But the problem is – such ideal usernames for your email address might not be available. No worries! Through this blog post, I will walk you through some clever and creative tips to help you get your desired email usernames.

Gmail Vs. Yahoo Vs. Outlook? Selecting The Best Email Service Provider:

Before coming up with a professional email address for your personal or business needs, I will suggest you to pick a good email client which suits your unique requirements. For example: Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, AOL, and Mail.com are some widely used free email clients.

You would want to choose Gmail because it's powered by Google and enjoys a seamless integration with all popular Google apps like Docs, Drive, Calendar and Hangouts. Similarly, you may want to prefer Outlook because of its clean and modern User Interface. And… if you are really concerned about your privacy, you may also want to try ProtonMail, the world's largest end-to-end encrypted email service developed by CERN and MIT scientists in Switzerland. I will also suggest that you read this good post on Hubspot where they have reviewed the 11 best email accounts for 2021. This will help you choose an ideal email account based on your preferences and requirements.

Creative Tips To Choose Good Email Address Names (For Personal Needs)

Picked your preferred email account? Let's now discuss how to choose a good email address name for your personal needs (like family, school or college) using the following creative tips and tricks…

Please Note

In the following example screenshots, I've shown ideas for good email usernames @gmail. But as rightly pointed out by Mr. Pax in the comments below, Gmail does not allow the use of underscores (_) and hyphens (-) in usernames. You can only use alphabets, numbers, and dots (.) in your Gmail username. So please don't get confused. Consider them as hints/ideas only.

Yahoo & AOL allows the use of underscores while Outlook allows using both hyphens and underscores. So, if this limitation of characters in Gmail puts a full stop to your creative combinations, try your luck with these alternative email clients.

Tip Number 1: Try the ideal name format first

Start by trying the ideal format first – Your First Name (followed by) Your Last Name OR Your First Name (underscore/hyphen/dot) Your Last Name OR Your Last Name (underscore/hyphen/dot) Your First Name. Here is an illustration with examples:

If you are able to choose your desired email name, consider yourself very lucky and your search ends right here. Otherwise, move to Tip number 2 below.

Tip Number 2: Try with your name initials

Now try this format – Initial of First Name/Last Name (followed by) Your Last Name/First Name OR Initial of First Name/Last Name (underscore/hyphen/dot) Your Last Name/First Name. Here is an easy illustration with examples to help you with this format:

using name initials for good email address names

Still unlucky? No worries, try something unique this time. Follow the tip no. 3 below.

Tip Number 3: Use valid and appropriate prefixes/suffixes

Try to prefix or suffix your desired email name with intelligent short forms that may include:

Concatenated initials of your First/Last Name (followed by) your full name OR your full name (followed by) initials of your First/Last Name. For example, in my case, the prefix will be "ar" OR "ra" since my full name is Abhishek Raj. Using this clever trick at the time of writing this post, I'm still able to choose ra.abhishekraj@gmail.com as my email id. This looks quite neat and professional.
You may also try prefixing salutations based on your gender or profession like "Mr", "Ms", "Mrs" or depending upon your profession use "er" – for engineer, "ca" – for chartered accountant, "adv" – for advocate, and "doc" – for doctor. If you are into a creative profession, you can even use "blg" for blogger, "yt" for YouTuber and "gd" for Graphic Designer.
If you are still unlucky, you can try prefixing or suffixing the name of your city, college, workplace or some other valid professional associations.

Here is an illustration with examples to help you with this tip:

Prefixing-and-suffixing-for-good-email-names

In case you still turn out to be unlucky, please follow the Tip Number 4.

Tip Number 4: Let's personalize it now

Another clever idea to come up with the best email names ever is to add a personal touch to your usernames. For example, you may try to add personal prefixes like 'hey', 'lets+mail', 'this+is', 'its', 'say+hi+to', 'say+hello+to' or 'I+am' to your first name, last name or even your nick name. Look at the following screenshot for examples:

Still out of luck? Damn! Move on to Tip number 5.

Tip Number 5: Try with less popular email service providers

With a widely popular email service (like Gmail), it is difficult to choose an email name of your choice. Gmail itself accounts for over 1.5 billion active users. So, unless you started using it early, choosing unique email names on such an email client is a tough job. Moreover, Gmail doesn't allow to use underscores and hyphens in usernames. This makes it even more challenging to come up with good email usernames.

What's the solution then? Switch to alternative email clients. If you are looking for free email services, then Outlook and YahooMail are good alternatives to Gmail. Otherwise, if you don't mind spending out a few dollars for the highest level of security and privacy, then you may find ProtonMail as a great alternative to Gmail. Besides getting a good email name like yourname@protonmail.com OR yourname@pm.me, your emails are end-to-end encrypted with no tracking and zero access to user data. Here are some screenshots from the ProtonMail iOS app:

Tips To Choose Good Email Names For Business Needs:

Good business email names can make a positive professional impression upon all the stakeholders that you may interact with. While many opine that having a custom email address such asname@yourcompany.com is the holy grail for professional email communications, as an alternative, it is perfectly fine to choose a good email address on a free email client such as Gmail. So here are some useful tips to help you create good email names for your business:

Tip Number 1: Simply choose your business name

There is far less competition in choosing a business name as compared to the personal names. This is because in view of branding and copyrights, we usually keep company names unique. Here is an example on how to choose a good email address name for your business based upon your business name itself:

Tip Number 2: Add the word 'official' after your business name

Unfortunately, in a rare case where your business name is not available to choose on the email, then please try adding the word 'official' after the name. Here are some formats that you should consider:

business-name-followed-by-official-in-email-address

Alternatives to info@email address

If you create a business email name based on your company's official website, it's a common practice to choose generic email ids like info@email address. Trust me, this is over-used and doesn't look professional at all. How will a potential customer feel when he is sending you an email at info@email address? He will feel less confident and optimistic. How shall he address his email? To whom? Whether he will even receive a reply? That's why it is important to look at some better alternatives to info email addresses:

If you are the sole proprietor of the business, use your first name. For example: John@yourcompany.com
If you are doing a joint business with two or more friends, you can use a joint email address like team@yourcompany.com
If you have a large-scale business, try to use email IDs that represent various departments or sections of your company. For example, for billing department use an email address like billing@yourcompany.com. Similarly, for recruitment department, use an email address like hr@yourcompany.com.

How To Choose Professional Email Names For Job Search?

When you are looking for a new job, the majority of your time is usually spent emailing your resume to prospective employers. While the way you address your employers does matter, your email address also creates an impression. A lousy email address containing silly / casual / generic words can damage your professional reputation, and so the chances of landing a job offer. So, in this section, I will share tips to choose professional email address, especially for those looking for new employments:

Tip Number 1: Use your real name only

There is no alternative to using your full real name in your email address. If it's not available on Gmail — Try Yahoo, Outlook, ProtonMail, whatever! But, only use your full real name. No name abbreviations, no casuals, even no nicknames. That's rule no. 1.

Tip Number 2: Add your professional qualifications or college name

I understand that if you have a common name, your full name is likely to be taken on any email address provider. So, try to combine your real name with your professional degree / qualifications, or even the name of the college you've graduated from. This is professional and generally acceptable. Here are some examples:

Bonus tip: If you are presently working in an organization and looking for a job change, then do not use the official email address provided by your present organization.

All Good Email Names Exhausted? Try Personal Branding

If you have a very common name, and you feel that all those professionally good email usernames have been exhausted, then it's time to create your own personal brand. Registering a domain name in your own name is the first right step towards personal branding. Moreover, the level of competition for personal domain names is far less than the competition for good email names on free email services like Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. So, if you are serious about appearing unique and professional, creating your own personal brand is the way to go.

For example, I may choose to register a domain name in my own name, like –abhishekraj.in & the email address that I may choose will be in the form – raj@abhishekraj.in. Can you have such elite privileges on free email accounts? Never. Registering a domain name is easy. You can buy one for yourself for as low as $10 on any popular domain registrar such as GoDaddy.

Once you've bought your desired domain name, you can easily map it with ProtonMail (Plus/Professional/Visionary account) to enjoy a truly personalized and secure email experience! Even better? Mapping your custom domain name like this saves you from unnecessary hosting expenses that you would otherwise have to pay for maintaining a dedicated website (for just a branded email address)!

More email tips:

Learn how to create a professional email signature (with examples and templates)
How to send an anonymous email? And make it untraceable.
CC and BCC in an Email: When and how to use them?
How to end a business Email? Best closing tips with examples!

Any questions? Feedback?

I hope that you would have found my article resourceful and that it has helped you in selecting good names for your personal and business email addresses. Are you facing any problem? Any issues? Looking forward to engaging with you in the comments below.

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