How to recover the Gmail address previously locked up my YouTube channel name?

Question

Many years ago I linked my Google account with username abc@gmail.com to my YouTube channel with username xyz (note that usernames are different).

Recently YouTube prompted me to add a Google+ profile or Google+ page to my YouTube channel. I opted to create a separate Google+ page with the same name as the YouTube channel (xyz).

Now, I realize that Google+ pages do not have an associated email address. I would like to to somehow get access to a Gmail address using my YouTube channel username, that is xyz@gmail.com. However, I don't seem to be able to create a Gmail address with that name (error message "Someone already has that username").

But I'm pretty sure that nobody is using this username, in fact for years Google have not allowed users to create new Google accounts with usernames which were claimed already as YouTube usernames. It would make sense for me to be able recover the xyz@gmail.com address now that my abc@gmail.com account is no longer linked to my xyz YouTube channel (in fact I belive a Google account with username xyz@gmail.com has likely never existed).

Is there anyway to do it?

Answer 1

From The username I want is not available - Gmail Help

Gmail lists a username as unavailable if:

1. The username or a very similar variation is already in use, either in the exact format you're requesting or canonical format. For example, if example@gmail.com already exists, you can't create examp1e@gmail.com.
2. The username was in use but the address has been deleted. We've reserved the username to prevent spam or abuse.
3. To help protect your privacy, we don't reveal details about why a specific username is unavailable, or whether a username has been deleted.