Change a Directory user's name or email address

This page is for administrators who manage other people's accounts. To change the name for a personal gmail.com account, go here, instead.

You can change a user's work profile name or email address without losing any of their data. For example, if Jane Smith's name changes to Jane Doe, you can change her profile name and her email address from JaneSmith@example.com to JaneDoe@example.com in the Google Admin console. Jane will continue to receive email sent to both her new and old email addresses. To learn more, choose what you want to change from the options below.

What do you want to change?

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A user's profile (first and last) name

  • Appears in emails they send, the searchable Directory, and Google services.
  • Changing the first or last name has no effect on the user's email address or sign-in name.

See the steps: Change a user's profile name

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The first part of a user's email address (user@)

Choose what you want to do:

Option 1: Change a username

Example: william@example.com now wants the address bill@example.com.

The user will:

  • Start receiving email sent to their new email address
  • Sign in to their account with the new address (the old email address won't work)
  • Continue to get email sent to their old address, which becomes anemail alias
  • Continue to access emails, files, and data associated with the old address
  • Email sent to the new email address and the old (alias) address is delivered to the user's same inbox

See the steps: Change the first part of a user's email address

Option 2: Give a user another "email alias" address

Example:bill@example.com also wants to get mail at sales@example.com. Mail sent to either address arrives in the user's same inbox.

See the steps: Give a user an additional "alias" address (sales@)

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The last part of their email address (@example)

Choose what you want to do (you must own the other domain):

Option 1: Move one user to the new domain

Example:You added a domain for a new business to your account, and you want to move a user's primary address to that business.

The user will:

  • Start receiving email sent to their new email address
  • Sign in to their account with the new address (the old email address won't work)
  • Continue to get email sent to their old address, which becomes anemail alias
  • Continue to access emails, files, and data associated with the old address
  • Email sent to the new email address and the old (alias) address is delivered to the user's same inbox

See the steps: Change the last part of a user's email address

Option 2: Give all users an additional email address at the new domain

Example: You added a domain for a new business to your account, and you want everyone to have an email address at that business—in addition to their current address.

All users will:

  • Continue to receive mail at their current address
  • Continue to sign in with their current address (sign-in doesn't change)
  • Start receiving mail at the address with the new domain name, too. The new address becomes an email alias for that user
  • Email sent to both addresses is delivered to the user's same inbox.

See the steps: Add a domain alias

Option 3: Switch all user email addresses to the new domain

Example: You acquired a new domain for all your users and will no longer use the original domain (you're selling it to someone else).

See the steps: Change your primary domain

Related topics

  • Name guidelines for users and groups
  • Impact of changing a user's email address
  • Create and add users to a Group email address
  • Delete or remove a user from your organization

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