Choosing a username you'll still like in two years.

The nine checks

1. Say it out loud. If you can't introduce yourself with it (“I'm …”) without spelling it, strangers will never find you from a spoken mention. Voice chat, podcasts and word of mouth all run on this test.
2. Judge the lowercase form. Most platforms store or display lowercase, and everyone types lowercase when searching. swift_falcon and SwiftFalcon are the same name in practice — make sure the lowercase version has no unfortunate words hiding inside it.
3. Count the characters. Fifteen or under fits every major platform from X to PlayStation; the rules table has the per-platform numbers.
4. Drop the number tail and re-read. If the name only works with 2841 after it, it doesn't work. A short number with meaning (a jersey, a route, an area code you love) is the exception.
5. Search the exact name. Not for availability — the platform itself decides that — but for collisions: an existing creator, a brand, a fandom, an unfortunate meaning in another language you speak.
6. Check the impersonation angle. If your name is one letter away from a big account's, you'll collect their lost followers and their reports. Distinct beats adjacent.
7. Imagine it in the spaces you'll inhabit. A name that's hilarious in a game lobby may sit oddly on a portfolio, a work Slack or a payment app. Contexts leak into each other over time.
8. Ask how it ages. Names pinned to a current game, a fandom phase or being seventeen tend to expire. Words about you outlast words about what you're playing this year.
9. Sleep on the top three. Generate a batch, favorite three, and decide tomorrow. The one you remember without checking is usually the right one.

Then generate with a filter in mind

Run the checks in reverse as generation settings: pick a keyword that passes check 8 (something durable about you), choose styles that pass check 3 (skip long compounds if you need X's 15-character cap), and heart at least three survivors for check 9. The generator is on the homepage, and the scene presets — gaming, Instagram, Discord, aesthetic, funny — each apply their own part of this checklist by default.

One check no site can run for you: whether the name is actually free where you want it. That answer lives only in the platform's signup screen — which is exactly why generating a top three, not a top one, is the practical move.