Email Permutator
Results appear as you type. Runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere.
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Start Getting Mentioned On AutopilotWhich format to try first
The list above is ordered by how often each format appears in contacts MentionAgent has found on blogs and small publications between March and September 2026. We counted the 4,970 business-domain addresses where the address contains the person's name, with free mail providers such as Gmail left out:
| Format | Example | Contacts | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| first | sarah@ | 3,469 | 69.8% |
| first.last | sarah.jones@ | 793 | 16.0% |
| flast | sjones@ | 224 | 4.5% |
| firstlast | sarahjones@ | 168 | 3.4% |
| last | jones@ | 163 | 3.3% |
| first-last | sarah-jones@ | 71 | 1.4% |
| first_last | sarah_jones@ | 43 | 0.9% |
| firstl | sarahj@ | 18 | 0.4% |
| Everything else | sj@, jonessarah@, s.jones@ and others | 22 | 0.4% |
Two formats cover 85.8% of these contacts. On a one-person blog, first@ is the safest single guess by a wide margin. These are small sites, so a large company is a different case: there first.last@ is more common, and the fastest check is to find one address you already know at that company and copy its pattern.
When the name is not in the address
About half the time, a guess built from someone's name will not work. Of 10,125 blog contacts we found with a full name attached, 5,155 (51%) used an address that follows none of the formats above. Most of those are shared inboxes. Across 29,501 business-domain contacts, the most common were:
| Address | Contacts |
|---|---|
| info@ | 4,116 |
| support@ | 3,294 |
| hello@ | 3,011 |
| contact@ | 1,238 |
| editor@ | 121 |
For a pitch, hello@, contact@ and editor@ reach a person more often than support@, which usually lands in a customer-service queue. The tool lists these after the name-based guesses.
How to use the list without hurting your sender reputation
Every wrong guess you send is a hard bounce, and inbox providers read a high bounce rate as a sign of a spam list. Our guide to cold email bounce rates covers where the limits sit. Three habits keep guessing safe:
- Look for the real address first. Check the about page, contact page, author bio and the site's social profiles. If you only have an article, the author finder pulls the writer's name, author page and any published email from its URL. Our guide on how to find someone's email address walks through where it usually hides, and there is a separate guide for finding an email from a LinkedIn profile.
- Send to one or two guesses, not twenty. Pick the top format from the table, or the one that matches an address you have already seen at the same domain.
- Verify before a bulk send. Run the domain through our email verifier to confirm it receives mail at all, and use a paid mailbox checker or one of these email finders when you are sending at volume.
Once you have the address, our outreach email templates and guest post pitch templates help with what to say, and the cold email grader scores the draft before you send it.
Frequently asked questions
What is an email permutator?
An email permutator takes a person's first name, last name and company or site domain and lists every common way those can be combined into an email address, such as first@, first.last@ and flast@. You then work out which one is real.
What is the most common email format?
On blogs and small sites it is first name only. Of 4,970 blog contacts MentionAgent found where the address contains the person's name, 69.8% used first@domain and 16.0% used first.last@domain. Larger companies lean more towards first.last, so check an address you already know at the same company if you can.
Does this tool check which address is real?
No. It generates the candidates in your browser and sends nothing anywhere. Knowing which mailbox exists needs a mailbox check from a paid verifier or a published address. Search the site's about, contact and author pages for the address first, and use the list here when you cannot find one.
Is it safe to email every guess?
No. Every wrong guess is a hard bounce, and a high bounce rate pushes your mail towards spam for everyone you write to. Pick the one or two most likely formats, or verify the list before sending.
What if the person does not use their name in their address?
That is common on small sites. Of 10,125 blog contacts with a full name attached, 51% used an address that did not follow any name format. Those are usually shared inboxes such as hello@, contact@ or info@, which the tool lists at the end.