Selecting name for e-mail address

An e-mail address casts the basic image of the sender to the recipient. It should be unique in its own way and must justify the nature of the e-mail account. Nevertheless, there are a certain rules for choosing name for an e-mail address. The following guidelines will enable you to create the most apt name for your e-mail.

Guidelines of selecting name for e-mail address

You should select such a username that you are comfortable and can easily remember. At the same time your e-mail recipients should be able to identify you through your username. While choosing a username you are suggested to remember certain points.

Characters and Spacing: You must keep in mind that the characters that you use as your username can be numbers, letters, and certain limited punctuation marks like a single dot (.) or an under score (_).The characters that you must not use are diagonal (/), backslash (\), quotation marks (“), exclamation and question marks (!, ?), greater than or less than (< >). All the letters of your username must be in lower caps and there should be no gap between two characters or words. Two words can however be separated only by a single dot or an under score. The “@” sign can only be used in the appropriate place, which is after the name you have chosen and before the domain name. Eg. john.allan@yahoo.com or sophia_roberts@yahoo.com etc.

Personal e-mail account creation: If your account is meant for personal purpose, i.e, if your mail recipients are among your family members, friends, and close associates then the username can be casual. Eg. rinbowgirl@yahoo.com or talktojohn@yahoo.com etc.

Professional e-mail account creation: However, if the account is meant for professional use, i.e if the mail recipients are your office colleagues or your boss, then it is suggested to use your first and last formal name as the username. It could even be your first name or last name only, a combination of both, or select letters of each name to form an abbreviated name. Eg. john.allan@yahoo.com or sophia.roberts@yahoo.com etc.

Common account: However, you can also create the username with your initials and surnames. In this case, Allan Smith, a Yahoo! e-mail account holder might write it as asmith@yahoo.com. This name format gels well with both business and personal e-mail profiles.

Type the username that you have thought of, in the field provided. Check the availability of your username by clicking the box below or beside the field that reads ‘Check Availability of This ID’. In case the username already exists, you may have to think of an alternate one. Your username should be unique in itself. The e-mail sent to you must not find you otherwise.