Username as we call it is an online identifier for a user on a website. For some sites it is your email address and for others it is this name, the Username. With a Username one can login into a website (of course password is required too), basically Username identifies you for a website.
Now some sites are moving towards Open Id i.e. Open Identity and you need not create a username instead you login using Open Ids (depends on what Open Ids a site supports). There are many sites which can be used as Open Id and even you can create one from your own website (I am not going any deeper now about Open Id). So, coming back to Usernames most of the sites have usernames and you need to choose a username for yourself. Now, how to choose a Username depends on site to site.
Well, let us divide the sites into few major categories like Email, Official, Blogs, Forum, Games, and Financial etc. Though for sites in each of these categories you can have the same username (depends on availability) but on the base of user interest they create different identities. Let gets into detail for each on these.
Email – Is it you official identity, you use it for communicating with friends, use it professionally or for some other uses. Based on the use Username choice may change. For an official identity use may use your first name and last name combination, same for professional use. For business purposes you may choose your company name or something like [email protected]. Now with friends it could be your name, some word you really like etc. But keep in mind it should be easy to remember and if it is a word or combination of words it is better.
Official – It should be your name in case of individual and it could be name, contact us, contact, help, info and support in case of business, services etc.
Blogs – People write articles and generally don’t want to write them using their Real Name. In such cases you can chose usernames in such a way that it portray your writer identity i.e. the disguise under which you want to write.
Forums – Here username changes wildly and depending on the forum type people choose their usernames. As these usernames are displayed publically the usernames found on forums are sometimes interesting and hard to remember. Like if it is a technical forum you will find usernames like geekyman, geekstuff, techster etc. So, on forums you can choose usernames matching with forum theme.
Games – Usernames here too can are interesting and hard to remember but on different games sites you can go with username. Generally same username is used on different game sites as people can identify you not only on one site but across other sites as well.
Financial – For financial purposes you should not use the username which you generally use. For security purposes it is recommended that do not use easy to guess username. If the username used here is same as what you generally use on web then a bit of security is already compromised. So, here username should be different and need not necessary be your name. Choose it wisely and hard to guess.
Now, we know what username we can have for different kind of websites. There are hundreds of websites which a user creates an account both paid and free. Many times it becomes difficult to remember what account username I created on this site. If you are not using same username on all sites you use then it is possible that you don’t remember the username for a particular site. Though many websites not offer Forgot Username option and you can easily retrieve your username. But still using this option takes some time and we are always in hurry to do things. So, it is better to have that we remember what username we used.
This can be done by using same username across the web. This is not possible now to have a same one everywhere as there are so many users on web and someone might have take that username on some site. You will find that a username is still available on some sites but not on others. Now, the question comes is how to choose a username then and remember it. For this you can go for multiple usernames but limited to 2-5. You should always stick to these usernames and give them a priority. Like on any site when you are registering you will first go for a username with highest priority, if it is not available then you will go for second one then third one and so on. You will find that from this set of usernames you will find availability. So, next time when you are going to login into a website you can try your usernames one by one starting with the one having highest priority and in most cases you will be able to login at first attempt.
Changing Usernames – Some sites allows you to change your username (limited number of times) and other doesn’t. If you are not able to change username for your existing account you might create a new account. Now, for this new account you need to create and start afresh everything. In case of email accounts one needs to create a new account as changing username is not allowed. Though now some sites offer alias feature, checking mails from older accounts etc. but creating a new email account means you have to give your newly created email account to your friends again. Initially you would be checking you old account but after some time you may not and it is possible that you might receive important mails on your old account.
Firstly, it is advised that when you are creating email for the first time choose it so that you don’t want to change it sooner. Next, when changing an account tell all your contacts to update your email id. Send a mail to all your contacts about it. Next, what you can do is changing logins as email id on various sites i.e. on sites where you use your email as login change it to new one. Next, you can set an auto responder on old account like vacation response that you do not use this email account and your new email account is this one and please send you a mail on this new email id. Next, set a forwarding from old to new account. Next, some services give you POP3 access so if it is available then fetch mails of old account in new one. Next, some services give you access to read and write mails of other account, if it is available then you view mails in this way too.
At the end one simple rule you should keep in mind is that People should be able to remember your username and most importantly you should be able to remember your usernames on different websites.