How can I register a username for YouTube?

Question

My friend has a Google Account, iwantthis. She has the iwantthis@gmail.com e-mail address, but at registration, she wasn't able to register the iwantthis YouTube name, insted she has iwantthisplussomething.

I checked youtube.com/iwantthis and it responds with 404, so it seems like nobody is using it, neither a Google+ public profile exists.

Is it possible to register (or put in practice) the YouTube name iwantthis somehow?

Answer 1

YouTube seems to be cleaning up inactive accounts. There have been a couple accounts that I have followed personally as to await when they will be deleted. As of recently, they have all 404'd, which means YouTube closed these accounts due to inactivity.

On that note, I would also assume the same rules applies to when one closes their account manually, you will not be able to register for the same username again. That is, it appears to be taken but the account has been closed and it is not being released back to public.

Why is this so? Not sure, as with other Google products, Google is very stubborn (imho) when it comes to allowing users to change their username.

Answer 2

If it's possibly a registered trademark, has been banned, or the user closed it. The other possibility is that the username was registered & used before Youtube was purchased by Google.

Google won't allow the reuse of a username that's been used before. (Sources: one, two, three)

Likely, this account was created before the requirement that a youtube account be tied to a Google account.

Answer 3

My guess is that Google may not allow the same username on both Gmail and YouTube.

I don't know for sure though.