1. Decide what it’s for
A gamertag, a business Instagram and a burner Reddit account want different things. Public-facing names should be findable and consistent; private ones should reveal nothing.
2. Aim for 6 to 15 characters
X caps usernames at 15, Snapchat at 15, Xbox gamertags at 12, Minecraft at 16. Stay at or under 12 and you fit all of them. Shorter than 6 and it is almost certainly taken, as the explainer on the right shows.
3. Pass the voice-chat test
Say it aloud to a friend and ask them to type it. If they hesitate over the spelling, underscores or numbers, simplify.
4. Avoid look-alike characters
Lowercase l, capital I and the digit 1 look nearly identical in many fonts, as do O and 0. “rn” can pass for “m”. Test yours in the look-alike checker on the username checker page.
5. Keep personal details out
Surnames, birth years, school names and towns help strangers find you offline. Roblox’s own username guidance bans real names and addresses for this reason.
6. Don’t borrow a brand
Names like “NikeOfficial” or “SupportTeam” get suspended for impersonation, and big platforms reserve words tied to their own staff. Build on your own words.
7. Make it yours, not trendy
Start from something you actually like: a hobby, an animal, a place, a word you enjoy saying. Our Space style borrows Moon words like waxing, gibbous and crescent; if one lands in your handle, ahaboo has a narrated piece on why the Moon cycles through those phases.
8. When your name is taken
Before adding random digits, try: a second word (“JunoOwl”), a prefix like “its” or “the”, one separator (“juno.owl”), or a meaningful number. The username generator does these combinations for you.
9. Claim it everywhere at once
Once you’ve picked one, register it on every platform you might use, even the ones you won’t post on yet. Then nobody else can take it later.
FAQ
Should I use the same username everywhere?
For a public identity (streamer, creator, small business) yes: people find you faster. For private accounts, different names make it harder for strangers to connect your profiles.
Is it bad to put numbers in a username?
Not bad, but a random number reads as "the good one was taken" and is hard to remember. A number that means something to you, or none at all, is better.
Can I change my username later?
On most platforms, with limits: TikTok and Minecraft every 30 days, Roblox for a Robux fee, Reddit never. Check before you commit (rules reviewed Sep 2026).
Why every short username is taken
Drag the sliders. The first number counts every possible string. The second counts only ones you could say out loud (a consonant–vowel rhythm like kovan). Compare that to how many accounts a big platform holds.
All possible strings
12 million
Pronounceable ones
287 thousand
Accounts vs. sayable names
There are more accounts than pronounceable names this long. Every one of them could already be gone.
That’s why generators combine two real words, add a separator, or tack on a number: each trick multiplies the space. Two words from banks of 1,000 each give a million combinations before any digits.
Will people read your handle right?
Someone will copy your name from a screenshot or a stream overlay. Type a handle and see it in four common typefaces. Risky characters are highlighted.
Highlighted: Il1ustrOus_0rnament
Readability score: 26/100
- Contains l or I, which look alike (and like 1) in many fonts.
- Contains O or 0, easy to swap.
- "rn" can read as "m".
- Longer than 15 characters: fits fewer platforms and is harder to share.
In many sans-serif fonts a lowercase l and a capital I are the same vertical stroke. Fonts built for legibility, like Atkinson Hyperlegible (made for the Braille Institute, and the body font on this site), add tails and serifs to tell them apart. You can’t pick the font other apps show your name in, so pick characters that survive any font.