How can I change my Gmail address?

Question

How can my wife explain to gmail that her name changed when we got married?

There does not seem to be a way to change my wife’s Gmail’s email address to use my surname.

Whatever I try her now incorrect gmail address is in the “senders” header and some email clients display the value of the “sender” header rather than the “from” header.

Answer 1

You cannot change an email address, you can change the display info, create a new account and/or add a second account.

It isn't possible to change your username once you've created an address, but there are some options to change the way your username is displayed.

The three ways to do what I think you are trying to achieve (change in the display name) at least change how the display name appears

1. Changing the profile information in her Google Profile . _{This will affect all Google products.}
2. Changing it in her Google Account
3. Gmail specific under Settings->Accounts and Import, edit info for all or just her default email address. Switch the option from (your name in Google accounts) to the desired display name.

Edit, saw your updates : Try creating a second account and use the Import option to get mail from her old address.

Update : Use the above settings for the display name. Import the new account FirstName.NewLastName@gmail.com to the old account. Then in your Account and Import settings choose FirstName.NewLastName@gmail.com as the default address to send mail as. Also switch this to enabled as well

Always reply from default address (currently FirstName.NewLastName@gmail.com)

This way

• Recipients see the new address
• She will always reply from her new address
• Labels are maintained as the old account is being used.

From here you can slowly make the transition from the old address to the new address since she has over 30 labels.

Answer 2

You can use a custom "From" address. And if you set it up to use gmail's SMTP, only the new address will be included in outgoing emails, with no reference to the old.

Answer 3

You can't change the email address, only the display name as mentioned. It sounds like this isn't what you want though - you want a completely new Google Account.

You would need to create the new account and then move the data, email and other Google services, over into the new account.

On the old email, you could then add an auto-responder letting people know to use the new email, forward mail from the old account into the new one, or have the new email account check the old email account.