A long long time ago...

Yeah, I got my name when gmail was 'invite only' :/

It actually kinda sucks. At any given time I have between 3 and a zillion idiots around the globe who, for months or years on end, keep buying concert tickets, airline/vacation bookings, get job hits, legal firm or health-care notifications ... using my email (jbloggs@gmail.com) instead of (jbloggs999@gmail.com) or whatever variant they actually signed up for, since I got 'just my name' and they keep. forgetting. their. own. bloody. email.

And most of the time this shit is sent from a 'noreply@wherever.net' so I can't even tell them they have the wrong email address. Grrrrrrr.

I really hope that is not your real email
- Joe Bloggs is the UK equivalent of Joe Shmoe, John Doe etc - a common placeholder name for the average person.
- or real name.
- Hah, no don't worry ;)
I never thought I'd meet the inventor of blogs!
Same here. And the reasons you mention are exactly the reason I deleted that account a few years ago when I switched to Fastmail.
A couple of my friends are willing to put up with it, but always mention the volume of spam they deal with.
I've had my new email address for 6-odd years and only have one regular spam source - from a hack of an online shop - but as I used a username+shopname email alias for it, it's easy to detect and automatically handle.
Now I use Fastmail's "Masked Email" feature for each online account. When (not if) a site gets hacked, I just change the site to use a new masked address and block/delete the old one, and then it's useless to scammers/spammers.
Same, the best one was the dude who created an account with my email but his own phone number. So I text him to try and scare him with the fact that some random dude got hold of his private info. He was unfazed and replied "my nephew set it up for me, guess we've got the same email address"...
There is still a woman in the Miami area who uses my email for everything. I've even received her completed tax documents from her accountant and was told to "disregard" when I replied to it. It's been over ten years. My name isn't even Alicia.
Have you RSVPed for the soccer fundraiser yet? -_-
I recently signed up for a new email. I check the address sometimes before entering it somewhere. It’s not hard.
I've had someone's emails for years, every once in a while I get a new one from the doctor or when they need to recover another account its so weird. But they use the same email but with a dot. Even their google recovery emails from another account

I made a gmail with my name like 2 years ago, I just have an uncommon name ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I've tried using my name in email/accounts for decades and never got it. I have a name so common people think I'm making it up when I tell them. It also makes me not too worried about posting it online, because even if you knew it and my location you still probably couldn't find the right person.
- Nice x3
  I wish I had a slightly more common name sometimes tbf, cause it never appears on coke bottles or any other novelty that includes names lol. Googling my name just gives a result for a prince from the 14 century, and the year I was born there were only 3 other people with my name according to a naming website haha, not including my last name of course which is also one of the rarer ones from what I gather, so ye
Same! Even on Facebook, there is no one with my name (including me). I've recently accquired a lastname.tld domain, and it wasn't taken already :D

I own the domain for my last name (firstname@lastname.countrycode) and get people all the time insisting it can't be my real email. I also own a short domain based on my last name (like last.nm) which is very useful and techy people think it's pretty cool.

May I ask, where do you come from? I use firstname@lastname.dev domain, and even elderly people never question it. When I bought it, I was considering .pl (my country's TLD), because I thought that people would be suspicious of the .dev, but suprisingly they aren't.
- Exactly the same for me. I was worried people will not get it but it has never been a problem for almost 2 years now.
That's neat. I had my email on a .social domain and many websites would say it was not a valid address. Now I'm back to my firstlast@gmail.com, fuck everyone.
I own the domain firstname.countrycode so my email address is email@firstname.countrycode, haven't really had many people comment on it though. the previous owner didn't do anything with it and I thought about buying it from him, but a few years ago he forgot to renew it so I snatched it up

Sounds good until dozens of people around the world all use it as their email too. So many receipts and job applications. I have enough documents for an Australian with the same name as me, I could easily steal their identity. A 12 year old in England set up an Instagram with my email and I ended up with access to their full account. Also had some fun the time I was included in a maga family email chain.

Same for me. The lack of email validation is ridiculous.
hah ! that's funny as hell.
There's a guy carrying my name, he works as something of an art dealer, don't know the specifics. I have been included in many conversations. The price some paintings go for is... surprising. Oh and one of the same bunch also runs a christian scouting club or something.
One of my impostors signed up for adult friend finder and tinder using my address. Try explaining that to the wife. I also get important mortgage documents, consulting invoices, family gathering plans, you name it. The ones in Austin TX and London are especially egregious.

And of course, gmail is the only email provider.

(/s)

with DKIP and FARCS, it basically might as well be

And here I am, with a firstname@lastname.de address, running my own mail server.

People sometimes act like this is pure magic
Some providers only allow popular mail services on signup (fuck those), so I had to set up a GMail address that just redirects to my actual one
My last name is really hard to spell, so it probably wasn't the best idea, since I always struggle communicating that address verbally

The pain of running this still beats having to deal with a free provider out there that either spams my inbox with their own BS or just skims through the data to serve me ads.

I’m using my custom domain email with a hosting service (mailbox.org). Hosting on my own was a pain in the ass and you also have to deal with spam filters not trusting you.
QR codes can help
Sadly I didn’t think to try to grab my last name until recently, and it has been owned for quite a while.
Nice! I have firstname@lastname.us.
- Congrats!
I have a few domain names, including firstnamelastname.co.uk. I mostly use it for spam monitoring; everyone gets a different address, so eBay has ebay@, Microsoft has microsoft@, etc. It's harder for them to link my identities together and if I suddenly start getting fuckloads of spam I know who leaked/sold my address. Fuck you, LinkedIn and LastFM.
I also had my own email server until recently (MailInABox on Proxmox), but I was looking for a cloud storage provider so I ended up signing up for Proton and moving my email there.
What setup did you use? I'm interested in doing this as well. I've already self hosted a NAS with vpn access using an RPI4 with PiVPN. It works quite well.
I have @firstnamelastname.tld since last name was taken (unrelated to me).
Typically use company@firstnamelastname.tld when giving out my email to keep track of spam so I used airline@firstnamelastname.tld when buying tickets.
At the check in the person saw my airline@ email and askes: oh do you also work for airline?

I have this and the other people with my name give it as their own email address all the time, apparently not understanding that you don’t get the address just for existing.

Ugh same. My first name is very common, last name moderately uncommon. I've gotten loads of stuff. Various quotes and invoices (vet, mechanic, window installation), invitations to child care groups, family gathering invitations (that one I think was the person writing the email address, not the person with my name).
Most of the time I just immediately unsubscribe or block or whatever and move on, but there's some (like the child care group) I had to reach out to because that could be potentially dangerous.
Get your own email right, people! It shouldn't be my responsibility to manage your email. Some of that shit includes your home address too.
Ha ha this happens to me so much. I even had to help a poor dude out because his account (and stuff getting delivered) all was under my email.
On a side note, I got the firstnamelastname@gmail, but Gmail often proposed the firstname.lastname@gmail in autocomplete, with my image and all, so I just "recovered" it. Now I have both when I'm trying to ditch Google 🤷🏼‍♀️
- Gmail addresses with and without a dot are actually identical. Mine has a dot but I also get emails without the dot.
it happens to me too, though my format is lastname.firstinitial, so I have more potential for confusion as my last name isn't super uncommon.
people just sign up for stuff with it. sometimes banks even.
That’s pretty good, for how bad it is.
I have a pretty old gmail address that’s fmlast@gmail, and several years ago there was a lady with fmlast12@gmail who kept leaving the numbers off. It wasn’t that bad though, and for one or two important things I replied to help.

I got my Gmail account because someone gave me one of their early adopter invites LOL.

Yeah, I never got an early adopter invite, and by the time it launched to the public, someone already had my name. Apparently there’s some middle aged programmer who shares my name, and he got an invite.

do you mean the holy grail of

firstname@gmail.com

or the slightly uncommon

firstnamelastname@gmail.com?

I got firstnamelastname@gmail.com when gmail was still 'invite only'.
The one drawback to that is there is a General in the U.S. Army with my exact name who doesn't understand how email works and apparently gives out my email address as his. I wish I knew what his actual email address was so I could let people know what it is. I bet he's missing out on a lot of VA functions and barber appointments because he couldn't be assed to remember his actual email address.
- I have first name lastname too. And tbh… It’s a bit of a curse.
  I have 2 swedish people wirh the same name as me give it to whatever websites they sign up for at random.
  (I’m pretty sure its two people, but oculd also be one person)
- If he's active duty Army, try firstnamelastname@usa.army.mil firstname.lastname@usa.army.mil. if it's a somewhat common name try adding .1 after the name and incrementing up if necessary.
  As a General, he's likely in charge of some really big organization, like a whole military base or CCMD (combatant command). Try looking through the emails you get to see if you can find some context for where he might work, then search for an about page or contact page on the public web. You won't get him directly but someone who knows how to route the information up to him.
I know somebody who got his first name on Xbox Live. And he didn't even make an account until he got a 360.

“Do not cite the deep magic to me…”

When I was growing up, this was all fields.. gestures towards ocean

Old Man Peabody owned all of this!
- Twin Emails Mall
When I think back on the times I ordered things from eBay by walking to the local convenient store, getting a money order for the winning bid amount and sticking it in an envelope to mail it to some random address for someone I'd never met expecting I was going to get an object back for the money, it's crazy that it worked for me every time. My brother would also buy cards online (basketball, baseball) and had a local shelf at a card shop here. He'd buy cards at the store when they were cheaper than they sold online, and those online that he could sell higher in the store. That led him down a hole where he used Bitcoin at one point for trading cards. He's one of those people that had 9 Bitcoin or some shit left with the key on a flash drive or something. At the time that was probably $7 or some shit so he lost track of it. Just had the numbers in his excel document with what was left from the purchases. He probably formatted it for use for some school project or something and never thought twice about it. Crazy to think that could have been sold for near a million dollars now haha

First name guy right here. Bow before me, peasants!

Firstname.lastname@gmail, and @yahoo, and @hotmail (before MS bought it.)
- I do too. Have it on @live.com too
The amount of spam you get must be unreal
- I do. Today I mainly use it to receive auth codes.
I have just surname@gmail. On the one hand, easier to get, on the other hand, I get tons of spam from people who fucked up entering their intended recipient. It's the type of thing that seems cool on paper and in reality carries monkey paw consequences.

I have a somewhat common word as my last name.

My first two initials are 'al', which means "to the" in Italian.

My email is al.lastname@gmail.com

I get Italian train ticket reservation info about twice a year.

There was a mixup with a German teacher in France once and all of her students sent their homework to my email instead of hers. That was fun!
- Did they get good marks?
I have a first name that is of Saxon origin but this name has also developed in Sanskrit independently from the Saxon name and the name is very common in India. One of my email addresses is [firstname]123@gmail.com I often get email directed to some Indian bloke. And it’s always for a different guy. I think these people don’t have an email and just make one up when they signed up for something. I even get someone’s banking communications.

I was there when gmail was invented
Was there during the invitation period
Someone picked my preferred name
I ended up with a kinda dumb name
Didn't matter much, because my primary email is a redirect, anyway, and gmail still lets me use those (kudos to them)
Google came up with Google Code (and other services) where your public gmail address is your identity
Nope, fuck off
Glad they died. Shame Github got eaten by Microsoft, but, eh...
Google hasn't really been good at letting people specify their identity, ever since
Yes, this is also a transgender user story, why do you ask?

When gmail was invite I got my name, my ex wife's and both my kid's. I also got a couple of regular words, for other uses. I get a ton of mail for other people with the same last name.

my ex wife’s
At first, I was like "damn that's some next level revenge" before I realized what you meant

In a galaxy far away...
Naboo was under an attack.
And I thought me and Qui-Gon Jinn
Could talk the federation in
To maybe... cutting them a... little slack.

But their response, it didn't thrill us.
They locked the doors and tried to kill us.
- We escaped from that gas
  Then met Jar Jar and Boss Nass

My name is uncommon enough that I can always pick my name everywhere, and when I can't it means I forgot I had an account.

I have that for my deadname account, but I had to put a number in my post transition gmail account. I do have firstname@lastname as a personal domain though some sites don't like that.

Kid taking my gmail address: how did they allow you to have a troll name for email address?

I was there when gmail was invented.

imagine my luck at joining lemmy.world before they created an affiliates program.

I currently have my full name on GMail and Proton, but I actually had my first name on GMail when it first launched. As in, if my name was Brian (it isn't (it might be (it isn't))) I had brian@gmail.com. Sold it for £1000.

Wouldnt you get extra spam for having such a simple name?

I’ve gotten that a few times from people, I got mine when it was still in beta. Don’t use it anymore because google, switched to Proton.

I heard that Proton email addresses have developed a reputation for often belonging to scammers and spammers. Do you know if any of your outgoing email has ended up in anyone's spam box?
- Can’t say that I do, but I also don’t know how I’d ever discover that what you’re asking happened.

I got my gmail as my name like a year ago because I just have an uncommon name (Denvil)

Denvil my man, have a great day!!

I thought it was an April fools gag.

I had firstnameLastname@gmail.com but deleted my account recently.

"invented" my ass.
It's just a data harvester with 0 innovation

When it came out it was the only email service that offered 1GB of storage for free.
- Came out on April first. All the other email providers had a good chuckle at the obvious joke. The panic when they finally realized it wasn't a joke was some good schadenfreude.
  For reference the standard limit at the time was 10MB with 100MB available for an extra fee.
- it's not free, YOU are a product

Summer 2005. I have the first letters for my name and middle names and then the full last name dot gmail.com. However, nowadays I use my own domain. Since 2008 i got my own domain dot country code but it was for selfhosting. 4 letters dot country code. Only last three years ago i switch to use it for mail as well. I dont host my inbox, just forwards it.

i regret having gmail

I'll never understand why anyone would ever use their real name as a username. Why would you intentionally dox yourself?

For email? Business.
- Still wouldn't do it.
  Edit: Also, using Gmail as your businesses email address is extremely unprofessional. You should be using your own domain. You can always forward it to Gmail.
Because a lot of times you specifically want people to know who you are lol.
- My son at the bank with the director (the manager wasn't there) opening his bank account:
  So first name, your mail is: hellfireturtleboonstox@gmail ...
  Son:🥸

Probably more a problem for Americans all being named John Smith

And I can still remember how...

It felt great signing up for loops.Video when it got announced and getting firstname@loops.video

My partner has his lastname@gmail.com. no letter number €_-+() or whatever.

Stupid part now is that sometimes he gets mail for letter . /_/ - lastname. Only on important stuff he reacts. He still is happy with it.

I had to be invited.

In a galaxy far away 🎶

Naboo was under an attack

I gave up. I own my name as a domain.

So if my name was John Doe, as an example, my domain would be Johndoe.com and my email would be John@Johndoe (dot) com.

My name isn't John Doe.

Gmail is cool and all, but it's pretty sweet to have my custom domain name and email.

The domain I really want is just my last name, so I can be firstname@lastname (dot) com.

Unfortunately my last name isn't uncommon and the last time I checked, the squatters on the domain were asking like $3k usd for it.

All kind of nope on that.

I’m so old I was able to get my kids Gmail with his name.

as cool as it is to have a gmail account from back then, I have an older lady in the US who just registers things against it, because we have the same first initial and last name. I found her on facebook and messaged her to tell to please stop using my email address, she still does it from time to time.

Its crazy that stuff like ebay will let you verify an account with a mobile number, but never verify the email address. I ended up moving her ebay account to an email address that I created, but I was tempted to buy a bunch of shit for her...

Same thing happened with my nephew over the 4th.

I really don't understand this. I just made a new gmail with my first and last name. No other symbols or anything. I did that last year. I can't possibly have that unique of a name compared to others.

I got <first_name_initial><middle_name_initial><last_name>@gmail.com in imitation of my university webmail account name. My brother who had the same first name and middle name initials knew this and had adjusted accordingly.

However, recently, someone registered this e-mail for school and I kept receiving their school e-mails.

My e-mail account is already roughly two decades old at this point, so I thought I was safe from this kind of problem.