How To Select A Name For Your Personal Email Address?

Having an email address is common these days. Almost everyone has at least an email address because it is an integral part of your online identity.

There is a high chance that you will be using your email address for years. In fact, the more you use the email address, the more likely that you are going to stick with it the longer. This is why choosing the right email address, whether it is for personal or professional use, is important.

Unless you are creating an email address for the domain that you or your company owns, most of the best names have been registered and used by someone else. For instance, if you are going for free email service providers such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook, you will find that most of the names that you want have been registered and there is no way you can re-register them. Thus, you will have to choose another option and use a different name instead.

There are hundreds of millions of emails have been registered, so how are you going to register the right one?

And this is what you are going to discover in this article. We will cover the complete guide in choosing the right email address for your use.

Why Your Email Name is Important

You may think that choosing an email address is something simple and require no effort. While this may be true to a certain extent, having a professionally chosen email address has a great impact on both your personal and professional life.

Plenty of studies on email open rates have found that trusting the sender is the single most important factor in whether an email is opened or not. Think about it, if you are using a funny email address and send your resume to apply for a job, there is a chance that your email will not be opened because it sounds unprofessional. You just do not know, right?

Therefore, it can be vital in choosing the right email name. The “From” name in your email says a lot about you.

1. The Right First Impression

A generic email may project inexperience or even worse, raise doubts on whatever you are doing with your email. If you are only using your email for personal use such as registering social media accounts, it will be alright. However, if you are using your email to communicate with others, it is always better to choose a better name for a better impression.

This is especially true if you are using your email for work or business purposes. A branded email shows the world how professional you are. Not only that, when you are using a good email name, you are indirectly telling people that you are someone who cares about the detail.

2. Reduce the Risk of Being Marked as Spam

This is because anyone can create email addresses and unethical people are sending spam emails easily, it makes having a professional email address even more important. You do not want the email you send to be considered a spam.

Some spam and malware filters will automatically disable or move your emails into Junk Mail folders when they find your email name suspicious. Therefore, owning a professional email address reduces the risk of your emails bouncing or being sent straight to the trash can.

3. Build Credibility and Trust

On the contrary, when your email address name is professional, you are providing a sense of credibility and security to the receivers. People are more likely to open the email from a credible source than from someone who “sounds” suspicious, like “[email protected]” or “[email protected]”.

4. The Future of Communication

Although social media like Facebook has emerged as a popular way to communicate, email is still considered one of the most important platforms for serious communication. People are still using emails daily and there is no way it will be replaced in the short-term.

When it comes to work and business, email is a very important communication tool that cannot be ignored. You will never send resume using Facebook after all. Studies have also shown that people treat emails as something “important” than messages they receive through social media.

And because of this reason, email remains as the king of online communication and this is also why you need to choose the right email name.

5. Promote Yourself and Your Brand

One of the benefits of using a branded email is that every time when you send out an email, you are promoting yourself or your business. If you are using your email for personal use, this reason may not be as impactful. However, if you are using your emails for communication with your clients and business purposes, a good name can help you create brand awareness.

If you think that branding is only for big businesses, think again. You are never too small to start building your own brand and you can do it with your email.

Choosing the Right Email Service Provider

So should you be using Gmail, Yahoo Mail, or Outlook as your email service provider? Remember that these are free email service providers and you can use them in any way you want.

There are only two things to consider here. First, if you have your own domain, use your own domain for your email. Second, if you do not have a domain, just use Gmail, an email service by the tech giant, Google.

You want to use Gmail because it blocks spam before it gets to your inbox, plus, all your emails are easily organized into three categories, Primary, Promotion, and Social. It is one of the easy-to-use emails and has a really high efficiency. Not to mention that Gmail also comes with a huge storage space you can utilize.

The first choice is to go with your own email address under your own domain, which we will talk more about it below. However, if you would like to go for free email service, just go with Gmail.

The 8 Tips for Choosing Your Personal Email Address

Regardless of what email service provider you go for, remember these 8 tips when it comes to choosing the right name for your email address.

1. Don’t Frustrate Yourself

The process of registering your email address is as simple as drinking water, but getting the right name that you desire that is available is the headache part. You will have to try with different names to check their availability. This is especially true if you are using Gmail because it is the largest email provider in the world.

Imagine registering your email name with hundreds of millions of other people across the world. There is a high chance that the name that you desire has been registered. However, do not frustrate yourself. If the email address you desire has been registered, just move on to other options. Please understand that it is very normal for an email address to be registered by other people.

2. Go for Evergreen

Never ever register your email address with your company or business name. This is because you will never know what will happen in the future and who knows if you will still be working in the same company five years down the road.

For example, if your name is John Smith and you are working in Honda, you do not want to include the word Honda in your email because you probably will not be working in the same company forever.

Therefore, the best bet is to choose an evergreen name; something that will never change and stays the same forever. For instance, use your first and last name in your email. You can also add in your nickname for the availability of the email address.

3. Using the Dot

One creative way to register your email address is to use the dot. However, do take note that Gmail does not distinguish between them. Meaning to say that emails like John.Smith, johnsmith, and jo.hn.smi.th are all the same username to Gmail. Google treats all these names as the same and if the email address you desire is already taken in one format, all other formats with the dot will not be available.

The periods do not matter for Gmail and Facebook emails. However, if you are using Yahoo Mail or Outlook, the dot does matter. In Yahoo Mail, the email [email protected] and [email protected] are different and can be owned by two different people. In Gmail’s eye, the dots do not matter. You can send an email to [email protected] and it goes to [email protected].

4. Consider Name Safety

Should you use your real name for your email address? Well, it depends on the purpose of your email. For a personal email address, it is very common to use real names. Many websites including Facebook advised users to use real names for their accounts. If you are using funny names, they may delete your Facebook account.

For professional email address, using your real name can impact your personal life; this is especially true if you are a celebrity or someone influential. Whatever you do will reflect you in the public, including your email address. You are portraying your company and your business when you are using an email address consists of related words.

In any case, you do not have to use your full name. Try to avoid using excessive personal information in your email address. Furthermore, try not use your birth year or relevant info used in security questions such as your pet’s name in your email address.

5. Brainstorm

If possible, brainstorm and write down a few email names you desire before you go through the process of registering them. This is because you want to save time and also avoid simply registering a name when the ones that you desire have been taken.

You do not need a long list of names, just about three or five names that you can accept will be good enough. Brainstorming helps you come up with better names rather than simply registering one when your desire name has been registered.

6. Easy to Remember and Pronounce

You will definitely want to choose an email name that is not just easy to remember, but also easy to pronounce. Just like your phone number, although that this information can be stored on your computer, smartphone, and database, but having an easy-to-remember email address creates a lot of conveniences.

Since you are going to be using your email address for years, choosing a name that is easy to remember and pronounce will be massively helpful. If your email is difficult to spell or pronounce, people may key in the wrong name and send it to other people.

7. Avoid Using Numbers and Hyphens

One of the common mistakes most people make is to include numbers and hyphens into their email addresses. Hyphens and numbers can sound very confusing and unprofessional. People who hear your website address do not know if you are using a numeral or spelled-out number, or they may also misplace or forget about the dash.

If you want to go for a good email name, just avoid using hyphens and numbers. Imagine telling people your email address is [email protected]. It is very confusing and complicated to type. Thus, to be safe, just do not use numbers and hyphens too much.

8. Do Not Use Email Service That Expires

You may see some people who like to use free email service provider from services such as [email protected] or [email protected], these services may expire and you may not be using the business service forever. And when the service is no longer available, the same goes for your email address.

You will have to change your email contact information when the email no longer available. And this is a real headache if you have used the email for many occasions and websites. So just go for the generic email provider like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, and Outlook.

The 3 Golden Rules to Choose a Professional Email Address

Over 75% of clients agree that having a professional email address is the key to building trust for small businesses. In an era where consumers are wary about the increasing threats of scams, choosing a professional email address is the least you can do to get off the right foot. So follow these 3 rules to create a professional email name.

1. Use Your Own Domain

When it comes to being professional, always use your own domain. You want to leave a good impression by using your own domain. For instance, use [email protected] instead of [email protected] or any other free email service provider.

Many years ago, getting a custom domain and using a custom domain email is a mark of professionalism. Today, however, things are different and using your own domain email address is more of an expectation. It gives people a lot of credibilities and a sense of trust when people contact you via your custom domain email.

Needless to say that registering a domain is cheap and creating the email from your domain takes just a few minutes. If using a custom domain email can give a boost to your credibility and make you, your business and your website look more professional, by all means, you should go for it.

A generic email is too common these days and a lot of unethical people are using these emails to spam and scam others. And when it comes to business, using a generic email can be seen as lazy or inexperienced. This will give a bad impression of a “fly-by-night” business or scam.

In addition, when you are using your own domain emails, there are plenty of good and memorable names you can use. With the free provider like Gmail, you do not have much choice left because most of the email addresses have been taken. Rather than using [email protected], you can use John Smith straight as your domain email.

2. Go for Plain and Standard

When you are using a custom domain email of your own, you are able to use the short and plain email address.

First Name Only – [email protected], this is the simplest and most commonly used professional format in an email. Displaying only your first name is the easiest to remember, leaves a personal connection with clients, and allows you to maintain privacy if you do not want to disclose your last name.

First Name, Last Initial – [email protected], when you have two people with the same first name in your team or company, this is a much better option to go for.

First Initial, Last Name – [email protected], this option is the second most popular to the “first name only”. People will tend to remember your last name than your first name and you are far less likely to have any duplicate email addresses.

Full Name – [email protected], this is a commonly used custom email address for people who want to brand themselves. Many executives and sole proprietors such as real estate agents and people who are in sales will consider this option as a branding effort.

3. Create a Purposeful Email Address

This rule is more applicable to the business owner because there is no way you can register email addresses like [email protected], [email protected], or [email protected]. However, when it comes to custom domain emails, you can do so. If you owned the domain, you can create unique email addresses to serve your business purposes.

For instance, you can create and use [email protected] on your website so that visitors understand that this email is meant for contacting and inquiries. You can also use [email protected] to handle all the sales related communication with your customers. This is why having a custom domain email can be powerful.

Using a generic address, like [email protected], looks more professional. It is also more convenient since you can forward emails sent to that address on to multiple accounts. So, for example, a sales email can be forwarded to your personal email and your sales manager. A press email can be forwarded to you and your social media manager, etc.

Manage Your Email Addresses with Forwarder

If you are having hard times with setting up custom domain emails, but you want to enjoy the convenience of Gmail, you can set up an email address through a free service and route it through Gmail.

The custom domain emails can be difficult to access and require a little technical skill. There are two ways to go about this. The first is to use the G Suite account and you can then use your custom domain email with Gmail platform. The downside is that you will have to pay for Google’s service.

Another option is to create a mail forwarding option. Whenever someone emails you, you can forward the email to a primary email so that you can manage the communication from there. This technique is useful when you have a lot of email addresses to manage and it allows you to manage all your emails from one place.

However, nothing beats having an email service solution like G Suite. You can use it to host emails on your custom domain and run the emails in Gmail platform and much, much more. Other paid email service providers also include AOL Mail, FastMail, Hushmail, and Zoho Mail. All of these email providers offer different packages and services to the users.

Conclusion

An email address is extremely important in today’s world. Treat your email like your online identity and how it will sound in 10 to 20 years. Your email address portrays you as a person and a professional.

Always remember that your email address is all about you and not someone else. When you select a name for your email, regardless of whether you are going to use it personally or professionally, use the information in above to create a good email address that represents you.