Thanks for the information on how to create an email address. I had an account with my ISP and have now plan to go with Gmail. Can I choose any email address I want?
Andre (South Africa)
It would be unwise to give a direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to this question. This will be made clear once you understand the basics of email.
What is an email address?
An email address consists of two part separated by the ‘at’ (@) sign. For example, webdevelopersnotes@gmail.com is a typical address of an email account on the Gmail service. The first part is the ID (or the username, if you like) and what follows the @ sign is the domain name – refer image below.
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Thus, there are two things that you can choose in an email address. Does this mean you can have anything you want for the ID part or the domain name part? NO! And it all depends…
Choosing an email address ID
There are tens of web sites offering free email accounts. The best email services in my opinion are Yahoo, Gmail and Hotmail and in that order; for more information, read why Yahoo email is the best email service?.
Any way, an account at one of these free service offers only so much control when choosing an email address. Why? Firstly, the domain name is already set and you can’t change that (see table below) and, secondly, you can only use an ID if it’s available. Hence, you cannot choose webdevelopersnotes ID on Gmail service since it belongs to me and I’m not going to part with it.
The table below gives the domain names from the three most popular free email services:
| Service | Domain names offered |
|---|---|
| Yahoo! Mail | yahoo.com ymail.com rocketmail.com Country specific Yahoo domain names like yahoo.co.in |
| Hotmail | hotmail.com live.com Country specific Hotmail domain names like hotmail.co.uk |
| Gmail | gmail.com (You can also substitute gmail.com with googlemail.com. This is applicable to all email accounts). |
Choose email address domain name
As mentioned above, free email service providers give you little choice in the domain name part. But there is no stopping you from getting your own domain name and creating an email address on it. There is just one catch – the domain name has to be available.
For instance, I own manishsharma.com, the domain name of my name. Another Manish Sharma (and I’m sure there are many because it’s such a common name) will not be able to get an email address on this domain without my permission (sorry! I don’t entertain these requests) – he can surely try other TLDs like .net or .org… whatever.
Finally, contrary to what many web hosting companies would have you believe, domain names don’t come for free. They are, however, very cheap. You can procure one for a yearly price of just $10-$15. Once you do get a domain name, you can have any email ID you choose. To get an email address on your own domain name either ask the company from whom you bought it or take a web hosting package (advisable if you plan to create a web site on the domain name). Check the links below for details:
