Username Generator
Looking for a memorable name for forums, social media, or gaming? Look no further, our username generator will provide you with choices that are cool, funny, badass, cute, or pretty, whatever your needs!
How to Create a Good Username
Usernames are inescapable – they're the markers that follow you around the Internet, whether you're logging into a forum, composing a tweet or posting on Instagram. They're also something that should be considered carefully, as they're going to be something that you'll see an awful lot of in your online life, so you want to make sure you're happy with your choice. Here are a few helpful pointers on how to go about choosing the best possible username:
Always Keep a List of Your Usernames
You'll often need multiple usernames for multiple websites – especially since you may not want to use the same name on that singles dating app that you do on your social network – so keep things clear in your head by maintain a list, either in a handy notebook, or via one of the multitude of currently available password storage apps.
Anonymous Names Are Your Friend
It may be easy to remember a combination of your name and your birth year – 'JoeBloggs1987' – but that also throws way too much information out there for anyone to find. Better options are going for variants of your name, or maybe spelling it backwards – find a useful twist that you'll remember, but which doesn't translate into shouting "Come find me!" to the entirety of the internet.
Where Is Your Name Needed?
Think about where you're going to be using the name, the people who'll see it, and what you want to be saying about yourself. A gamertag for the game streaming site Twitch could do with being very different from a login for MumsNet.
Keep Your Username Short
You'll often have to type it into search boxes, so going for something like 'MissCongeniality2000' might get very unwieldy, no matter how memorable it might be.
Create Something Unique
It's very possible your first choice of a username may already be taken, especially if it's a very big or popular site. Don't just go for the standard options that they'll fire back at you – instead, use the opportunity to get adventurous and creative.
Choose a Favourite
You don't have to go for the obvious choices, like your own name. You could choose something that's familiar, something that will instantly come to your mind if you ever have to recall your username – like a favourite fictional character, your favourite film, or your preferred alcoholic beverage!
Definite Articles Can Help
If you have a common name and keep hitting the 'Name Already Taken' message, try adding a 'The' to the front of it. Alternate choices that are useful for things like Twitter names include 'This Is' or 'I am'.
Symbols Are the Key
A good way of immediately making a username more distinctive (and maybe getting around the problem of your first choice not being available) is to replace certain characters with matching symbols, using an old-school text style called 'Leetspeak'. Turn an 'i' into a '1', an 'e' into a '3' or an 'a' into an '@', and you'll soon find a much broader and more distinctive variety of user names to choose from. (Also, remember that dots (D.I.S.C.O), dashes (ob-LIV-ion) or underscores (Cookie_Monster) are other ways of adding distinction and character to usernames.)
Generate Something New by Adding Initials
Another way of singling yourself out if you've got a common name is to employ your middle initial (resulting in names like 'SusanDMitchell' or 'JohnFPryce').
Combine Your Name and Job
Especially if you're trying to market yourself, choosing a distinctive username can be important – so build your job name into the username itself, going for a 'First Name/Job Name' structure (such as 'GwilymBarista').
Define Your Business
If you're making a username specifically for a business, there are plenty of options – you can add 'HQ' to the end of your business name, or put 'Team' at the front, or you could add your location into your name, to make it clear to your customers where you're based.
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