Recently I heard the story of a friend who created an email time capsule for their newborn. I liked this idea of a newborn email address and thought it is worthwhile sharing.

After they decided on a name for their newborn, they registered the respective name as @gmail address. They plan to send messages to their newborns email address along the way, sharing their feelings, emotions, funny happenings, photos and videos.

Once they feel that their child is old enough, they will hand over the login details to the email address and with it the keys to a digital treasure chest full of memories; An email time capsule.

There are many ways for people to memorise big events in their kids lives. Starting with the traditional (physical) photos album, via a clay imprint of the babies hand or foot all the way to a wooden height chart tracking their babies growth over the years (the latter is what we have decided on).

While many of these traditional forms of memory keepsakes are dear to us and irreplaceable, living in a society that shifts more and more into the digital realm, we are keen to add new ideas to the mix.

How many in our current generation have only digital photos of themselves or their families? Why not create a digital time capsule to keep track of important memories? After all emails are still one of the main ways of communication and are likely to keep this status for a long time to come.

Create an email address
as time capsule for memories.

Tragedies like house fires are (thanks for that and knock on wood) not too common but physical keepsakes can be lost in other every day situations like relocations. No matter how hard one tries, there is usually always some sort of collateral in form of personal items being lost in the process.

What if a child is not impressed by an inbox full of childhood photos and videos (I hope your child won’t be like that)? Well, they might still end up with a hopefully great email address (that on is on the parents though).

Why that matters? Email technology was invented in 1972 and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022. Gmail, the most popular mail service in the world launched in 2004 and since tens of thousand new ones are added every day. There are 1 billion active monthly Gmail users.

Each email address is unique, which means that with every day that passes, there are less good email handles available. The earlier users secure their name, the higher the chance that they preferred handle is still available. By the time your child is old enough for an email address, it might be 40 digits long. Imagine they have to use a monstrosity like … Sophie.I.wish–.I.registered.my.email–.sooner.2018@gmail.com. (Yes, this is a blatant exaggeration, but you get the point.)

Over time email addresses
get longer and longer.

If you want to go the extra mile, consider registering your babies name as domain name. Like email addresses, domain names are unique and once gone, either never available again or extremely expensive. Your child might only use the domain name as their personal email address or if encouraged and business minded, maybe even as a home for a future business.

How about hello@sophie.kiwi, instead of the long abomination of an email address above?

Now, you might think I am crazy to suggest that one registers and pays for a domain name until such time that ones child is mature enough to use it. But then again, how many of you plan already for your retirement? How many consider real estate investments or buying stock? How many have setup a bank account for their baby to start saving money for their education or OE?

May I also mention here that domain names can also function as investment, just like real estate. If your child turns out to have no interest in technology, or emails or communicating with other people (which is highly unlikely), they could always try to sell their domain name and potentially make a nice profit.

If you can’t be bothered with the yearly renew of the domain name, you can also register it for 10 years straight. The best part is, the email address is already included. Why not be different? Check if your baby name is still available.

#emails for babies #baby email address #email address time capsule #newborn email address #email address for newborns