Embarrassing Gmail address? Now you can change it

Good news for those who regret the Gmail address they found when opening an account.

Google now allows users to change this.

The company quietly began rolling out the change in India in late 2025, and said in a blog post this week that the change is now available to all Google Account users in the US.

No details were given about when it will be available to users in other countries.

Google’s CEO suggested the update would be welcomed by people who want to protect their accounts but have outgrown the weird, embarrassing or silly Gmail usernames they created after the service was launched 22 years ago.

“2004 was a good year, but your Gmail address doesn’t need to be stuck in it,” Sundar Pichai wrote on X. He added that the policy change means users can say goodbye to “v0t3f0rp3dr02004@gmail.com or mrbrightside416@gmail.com (or whatever you’re into at the time).”

The company also updated a help page to reflect the new policy.

But what if you still like your old Gmail address? Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to access it because Google effectively creates a second Gmail address.

The old address will remain as the alternate email address, and messages sent to your old or new Google Account addresses will appear in your Gmail inbox.

You can return to the old address by changing the settings in your Google account.

If you don’t like the new Gmail address you created, unfortunately you’re out of luck; at least for next year.

Google won’t let you create another Gmail address for your account until 12 months have passed. And you can only do this three times in total.