Choosing Your Email Names
Once you’ve decided to protect your communications by adopting a private email account, choosing a good name for your domain is essential.
Like any other form of communication, your email account name sends a message to anyone who sees it, and it will potentially be with you for many years to come. Beyond that, there are practical considerations as well.
Things to Consider
- Has your email account been hacked in the past?
- If so, you’ll want to choose a name that is significantly different from the hacked one.
- Is this for you only, or your family or another group?
- A private email address can become a family legacy -- a single communications hub with virtually unlimited potential for growth or reduction as needed. If this account will be used for the entire family, or say a social group, then make sure it’s a name everyone will feel comfortable with for many years to come.
- Do you have a domain already?
- If so, we can easily transfer the domain name to your email account.
- How prominent or elusive do you want the name to be? Should anyone be able to easily recognize who the sender is before reading an email from this account?
- If you want to be easily recognized, that’s fine, but avoid using excessive personal information in your email address.
- Also, try not to use your birth year or other info that you might use in security questions such as your pet’s name in your email address.
Above all, make sure your email name creates a good first impression.
Try to create an email account name that is distinctive and offers the impression you want first-time recipients to associate with you as a person.
A generic email name might project inexperience, or even worse, raise doubts about who you are and what you do. If you’re only using your email for personal use, this is less important. However, if you’re using your email to communicate with others who may not already know you, it’s always better to choose a name that will offer the best impression.
This is especially true if you’re using your email for work or business purposes. A branded email shows the world how professional you are. Not only that, when you’re using a good email name, you’re indirectly telling people that you’re someone who pays attention to the details.
Our advice: keep your domain name simple
If your email is difficult to spell or pronounce, people may key in the wrong name and send it to other people. So try to stick to the easiest possible choice of name.
What if my chosen email domain name isn’t available?
If the email address you want is already taken, you’ll have to get creative. But one way or another, there’s an available domain name out there that will work for you.
Here are a few suggestions:
- Consider adding “family” or “at home” to your family name, so it might be “Cunninghamfamily” or “Cunninghamfam”or “Cunninghamsathome”.
- A domain name checker will also automatically generate additional domain names you can choose from.
- Or, contact us and we can help you think through and decide on the best email domain name for you.
More resources and information on domain names.
For private email servers and private email support, click here.
Here is a great article about the history of domain names, and how to distinguish between them:
"The Complete Guide to Internet Domain Names; What The Are, and How They Work."
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