How can I change my Gmail address?

Question

My husband set up a gmail account for me. It works great, but the problem is I don’t like the account name he chose as it includes my birthday. How can I change it?

Answer

The bad news is you can’t change your user name in gmail once you create it. The good news is you can do something about it! What you need to do is create a new account and transfer your mail and contacts to the new account. Read below to learn how.

Move your mail

• Create a new gmail account with your desired username
• Get your email from your own account: In your new account you want to choose the Settings –> Accounts and Import tab.
• You will be checking/transferring your old mail into your new mail account. Use the settings below in the Check mail using POP3 area by clicking “Add POP3 email account”.

• Enter the following information. This will pull over your old email and forward anything new that goes to this address
  • Username: Your old gmail email address
  • Password: You old gmail password
  • POP Server: pop.gmail.com
  • Port: 995
  • Always use secure connection: checked
  • Label incoming messages: checked
• This will pull over your old email and forward anything new that goes to this address

Move your addresses

Moving over your contacts is easy.

• Log into your OLD gmail account.
• Select “My Contacts” and navigate to the “More Actions” button and select “Export”. The default settings are probably sufficient, but make sure you don’t want to make an adjustment.
• Export the file and remember where you saved it.
• Log into your NEW gmail account.
• Select “My Contacts” and navigate to the “More Actions” button and select “Import”. Choose the file you just exported and click “Import”