First name and Last Name in Email Address

[Ken7]

I know its pretty standard that lots of people use the first name and last name in their email.
I use first name @ last name.net and have been for many years with no problems.

In my older years now, I wonder about identity theft and other strange things and was thinking of doing away with using my last name in my email and making a change. Yes it would be a headache to go through all my accounts and update my email etc.

Do you think I’m over thinking this?

Thanks

[janusz]

First of all, there is nothing you can do about existing messages, where your first & last names are exposed.

[TenFour]

I think it is a good idea not to include your last name in your basic everyday email address. The only time it is really useful is if you use it for applying for a job or possibly if you have a personal business where you name is part of the business name. For example a lawyer or a writer. But I wouldn't use that email address for the run of the mill stuff you sign up for like newsletters, or placing orders, etc. Every little speed bump you can put in the way of identity thieves or scammers makes you a little less vulnerable. Another thing is that if you can create a short, simple email address that is really easy to type without making mistakes. If you have a name that is a bit difficult to spell or even just a long one there is a high probability it will be entered incorrectly.

[Bamb0]

I havent ever used my last name and the only email account I used that had my first name in was my first email address I ever had that a friend set up for me.... (I dunno why he put it in my name (uugghh))

[InquiringMind]

I would advise against using your name as part of your email address, but I would advise using something which can be effectively communicated to someone who does not natively speak your language.

Tax laws and corporate profits have allowed companies to outsource their customer service departments to foreign nations and so you might find yourself trying to explain your email address to someone who can barely understand you.

It is a lot easier to explain myemailusername@thisismydomain.null
than it would be to explain a19b8sdjufm@thisismydomain.null

You probably do want to use your real name this way
Firstname Lastname <myemailusername@thisismydomain.null>
because spam filters will be more accepting of this than if you use something more terse or cryptic. Similarly spam filters are more suspicious of no first or last name or a restatement of the email address.

HTH

[SideshowBob]

I don't think it matters. Identity theft requires more than that, and there are better ways of getting useful information.

One reason for not using your name is if your want to keep what you do on traditional mailing lists separate from the rest of your life. Beyond that, emails mostly go to people that either know or don't care who you are.

[TenFour]

One technique I have read about is when there is a password breach the hackers then flood likely email addresses with attempts using those passwords because they know a lot of them are reused. They know for example that they will hit a large number of real email addresses if they choose any domain and use the form firstname.lastname@anydomain.com

[SideshowBob]

Originally Posted by TenFour

One technique I have read about is when there is a password breach the hackers then flood likely email addresses with attempts using those passwords because they know a lot of them are reused. They know for example that they will hit a large number of real email addresses if they choose any domain and use the form firstname.lastname@anydomain.com

There's nothing there that's really specific to a firstname.lastname format.

It depends on very poor security, very weak reused passwords and no 2FA.

Often there's no need for the default address used for mail to be be a login name anyway - especially for hosted domains. And the OP referred to "first name @ last name.net"

[n5bb]

I have been using as my main email address for general use firstname @ lastname.net for 21 years (when I purchased that domain using my last name). This gives me an obvious easy to remember address to give to others.

But I believe it's a bad idea to use such an address for interacting with a business (especially a financial or governmental institution), because many people know the firstname @lastname address and this means it's likely to be discovered by spammers and scammers. So I assign a unique subdomain address to each important such business who sends me email. This allows me to immediately identify spoofing attempts, since they send to the wrong email address. I am also often able to detect if a data breach releases that special address, since a spammer would never be able to guess it or steal it from any other source. This only works well if you use a unique address associated with each business, and so I make use of a password safe to keep track of those addresses.

I use a completely different login address at my email provider (Fastmail). So I never get emails sent to that address except from Fastmail staff.

Bill

[webecedarian]

Originally Posted by Ken7

I know its pretty standard that lots of people use the first name and last name in their email.
I use first name @ last name.net and have been for many years with no problems.

In my older years now, I wonder about identity theft and other strange things and was thinking of doing away with using my last name in my email and making a change. Yes it would be a headache to go through all my accounts and update my email etc.

Do you think I’m over thinking this?

Thanks

No, I don't consider that you're over-thinking it at all. I'm surprised at all the people who have addresses like johnsmith @yahoo.com, and especially because so many of those people make a point of not being listed in the telephone book.

I'm not worried about identity theft per se, but just don't like to be in databases, so don't what to make it easier for anyone not entitled to information. Plus which, what do you do if there's some notorious news item with someone of the same name?

[ioneja]

Originally Posted by Ken7

Do you think I’m over thinking this?

No.

This is a great topic to bring up in 2020, and personally, I think it all depends on your usage: i.e. professional vs personal, etc... but even more granular now tbh.

My general rule of thumb is that for business it should look professional and include something like first initial + lastname @ professional domain. Clean, simple, straightforward.

When you go personal, I suggest aliases with little to none of your name in the address. Break things into manageable groups, or get as detailed as you want with aliases. One for family + close friends, website memberships, important accounts (like bank accounts), social media, throw-away aliases, etc...

Good luck!

[TenFour]

Thread revival! This issue is suddenly real for me now that someone is trying to take over my email account using my full name that I used to apply for some jobs around 10 years ago. https://www.emaildiscussions.com/sho...009#post633009

[jeffpan]

I have lastLame.firstName on these providers,
gmail
yahoo
aol
outlook
icloud
But I never use them. I use my own domain for email most time.

[dryoldlime]

Although the message almost four years old, one of the most interesting ones I have read:

Originally Posted by n5bb

I have been using as my main email address for general use firstname @ lastname.net for 21 years (when I purchased that domain using my last name). This gives me an obvious easy to remember address to give to others.

But I believe it's a bad idea to use such an address for interacting with a business (especially a financial or governmental institution), because many people know the firstname @lastname address and this means it's likely to be discovered by spammers and scammers. So I assign a unique subdomain address to each important such business who sends me email. This allows me to immediately identify spoofing attempts, since they send to the wrong email address. I am also often able to detect if a data breach releases that special address, since a spammer would never be able to guess it or steal it from any other source. This only works well if you use a unique address associated with each business, and so I make use of a password safe to keep track of those addresses.

I use a completely different login address at my email provider (Fastmail). So I never get emails sent to that address except from Fastmail staff.

Bill

[n5bb]

Originally Posted by dryoldlime

Although the message almost four years old, one of the most interesting ones I have read:

Thanks! In the last few minutes I received a new spam/phishing email from such a unique email address I created over two years ago to order an appliance online. Up to now all emails sent to that special address were indeed from the appliance company. But the email today had an apparently personal gmail FROM address (rather than the actual appliance company’s correct address) and was actually sent through the Gmail system, so SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all passed. It contained a PDF attachment and was supposedly a receipt for some order. Of course, I’m not opening that attachment and marked the message as phishing at my Fastmail account. I will call the appliance company and inform them that their customer database has been hacked.

I find that the best way to guarantee that an email is genuine is to check the message topic, the FROM address, and the TO address (when I’m using such customized addresses). If the TO address is indeed one of the custom ones I set up and the message topic matches that use for the address, then if the message FROM address is as expected for that sender and the full headers indicate that it indeed was sent by that sender (DMARC, DKIM, SPF, etc.), that message can be treated as genuine.

In the past month I have received at least 13 fake messages sent to one of these special addresses I set up for a home improvement magazine website 10 years ago. A few years ago they had some type of data breach and I started receiving random spam sent to that special address I had set up. So I know that I can treat as spam anything sent to that address.

Bill