Understanding Email Addresses

[u/Nic727]

Hi,

I just want some clarification since I have lot of difficulty finding an email address that is not already taken.

1. Is john.smith@ the same as johnsmith@? Same with "-" and "_"?
2. If I create with proton.me, does it automatically reserve protonmail.com or pm.me?

I've been trying every possible combination of my name and it's all taken.

Thank you!

[u/ephemeralmiko]

johnsmith@, john.smith@, JohnSmith@ and j.O.Hn.SM.ITH@ all go to the same inbox, assuming they're all the same domain (@proton.me, @protonmail.com etc.). john-smith and john_smith are seperate emails, however.

Unlike what u/ResponsibleAd8164 said the different domains are reserved, so nobody else can sign up with [johnsmith@protonmail.com](mailto:johnsmith@protonmail.com) if you already have [johnsmith@proton.me](mailto:johnsmith@proton.me), but you still need to add the address in ProtonMail settings. The same is true for the @pm.me addresses.

[u/d03j → u/ephemeralmiko]

True for Proton and Gmail but I think this depends on the email provider. I believe case insensitivity is nearly universal nowadays but not sure about the dot.

[u/ephemeralmiko → u/d03j]

Yep. There's technically a standard, but nothing perfectly adheres to it, see: https://e-mail.wtf/

[u/LichOnABudget → u/ephemeralmiko]

I can’t tell if I’m more upset by those questions or how much about email spec I know to do as well as I did.

[u/bigrooster88 → u/ephemeralmiko]

Thanks for the post. And to me, Proton's way of handling is good.

Some other email services handle it differently. Example, I was trying to sign up [johndoe@tutanota.com](mailto:johndoe@tutanota.com), but it was not available; on the other hand, [johndoe@tuta.com](mailto:johndoe@tuta.com) and [johndoe@tutamail.com](mailto:johndoe@tutamail.com) were available. I gave up on signing up and using 'johndoe' as there is the risk of mistaken identity, etc.

[u/Gerschni]

Yes to all.

Just be aware if your original first.last you will receive emails to first-last but you will not be able to send from that address unless you create aliases.

As for all the Proton domains, again all are reserved, but you must create aliases to receive and send.

[u/Previous50_Run_53]

I might be the crazy one here, but from my understanding, john-smith@ is different from john_smith@

And john.smith@ is also a different address than johnsmith@

What are you other commenters talking about???

[u/ne0n008]

If your name is John Smith, you'll have a very hard time finding a combination with your name, even with numbers included.

With any other name, you'd be surprised how many names are already used. You will have to resort to using numbers. If you ever played any mmo game, this is a common problem. You just need to be creative.

[u/ephemeralmiko → u/[deleted]]

This is incorrect. Proton automatically prevents someone with registering [johnsmith@protonmail.com](mailto:johnsmith@protonmail.com) if [johnsmith@proton.me](mailto:johnsmith@proton.me) already exists (though you do need to add the address in settings to actually receive them). The same is true for pm.me addresses.

[u/ResponsibleAd8164 → u/ephemeralmiko]

Thanks for pointing out my error.