Guide

How to create a custom email address

An address like anna@yourname.com takes a domain, somewhere to host the mail, and a few DNS records that connect the two.

Updated September 2026

smiths.familyDNS RECORDSMXSPFDKIMDMARCanna@smiths.family

Short answer

Buy a domain, sign up with an email provider that supports custom domains, and add the DNS records it gives you (MX, SPF, DKIM, DMARC). Then create a mailbox for each address. It takes an hour or two if you're comfortable with DNS, or you can use a service that does all of it for you.

The do-it-yourself way, step by step

  1. 1

    Buy a domain

    Pick a name and register it with a registrar. A .com usually costs $10 to $20 a year. Short family names are often taken, so try endings like .family, .me or .us.

  2. 2

    Choose where the mail lives

    A domain holds no email by itself. You need an email provider that hosts mailboxes on custom domains, such as Google Workspace, iCloud+, Fastmail or Zoho.

  3. 3

    Add the DNS records

    In your registrar's DNS settings, add the records the provider gives you: MX so mail arrives, SPF and DKIM so your mail isn't marked as spam, and DMARC to tie them together.

  4. 4

    Create the mailboxes

    In the provider's admin panel, create an address for each person. Most providers charge per mailbox from here on.

  5. 5

    Set up your apps

    Sign in on phones and computers. Apple Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird can use almost any provider over IMAP and SMTP.

Step 3 is where most people get stuck. Each provider names the records slightly differently, a typo in one of them fails quietly, and the domain has to be renewed every year or everything stops. Aliases and extra addresses are added later in the provider's panel.

The free way: forward to Gmail

If you only need to receive mail, you can skip the email provider. Services like Cloudflare Email Routing forward everything sent to anna@yourname.com to an existing Gmail account. You still pay for the domain, but the mailbox is free.

Sending is the hard part. To reply from the new address you need Gmail's "Send mail as" setting plus an outgoing mail server, and your SPF record has to allow it. Get that wrong and your replies land in the recipient's spam folder.

The done-for-you way

Some services buy the domain, write the DNS records and create the mailboxes in one go. That's what we do: you pick a name, pay, and the addresses are ready a few minutes later. It's $19 a month for the whole family, with six mailboxes and domain renewals included.

Comparing providers first? See how the options compare.

Which way to choose

  • Do it yourself if you like setting things up and want to pick every piece.
  • Forward to Gmail if you mostly receive and rarely reply from the new address.
  • Done for you if you want it working for the whole family without learning what an MX record is.

Skip the DNS, keep the address

Pick a name and we set up the domain and six mailboxes for you. $19 a month for the whole family.

Find your family's domain