Email format finder: company email formats ranked on 125,187 business addresses
By Ryan Doyle, co-founder of Sales.co. Published November 4, 2026.
Data: 125,187 unique company email addresses with a first and last name, Sales.co contact database (a random sample of 200,000 of 3,995,157 records), counted November 4, 2026. Free-mail addresses left out.
The most common company email format is first@company.com (john@), used by 31.3% of 125,187 business addresses in Sales.co's B2B contact database, then flast@ at 25.6% and first.last@ at 23.7%. Type a name and a domain below to get every format ranked for that person, then verify the top one before you send.
| Rank | Try this address | Format | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | jane@example.com | first | 31.3% |
| 2 | jdoe@example.com | flast | 25.6% |
| 3 | jane.doe@example.com | first.last | 23.7% |
| 4 | janed@example.com | firstl | 2.2% |
| 5 | janedoe@example.com | firstlast | 1.7% |
| 6 | j.doe@example.com | f.last | 1.2% |
| 7 | doe@example.com | last | 1% |
| 8 | jd@example.com | fl | 0.7% |
| 9 | doej@example.com | lastf | 0.5% |
| 10 | jane_doe@example.com | first_last | 0.5% |
| 11 | jane.d@example.com | first.l | 0.3% |
| 12 | doe.jane@example.com | last.first | 0.2% |
| 13 | jane-doe@example.com | first-last | under 0.1% |
| 14 | doejane@example.com | lastfirst | under 0.1% |
Ranked by share of 125,187 company addresses, all industries. Role inboxes (info@, sales@) were 43 of the 125,187, and 11.2% matched none of the 14 formats, so the 14 formats cover 88.8% of addresses.
The finder runs in your browser: the names and domain you type are never sent or stored.
Cite this: Sales.co, "Email format finder", https://sales.co/email-format-finder, share of each email format among 125,187 company addresses in Sales.co's B2B contact database (random sample of 200,000 of 3,995,157 records) counted November 4, 2026: first@ 31.3%, flast@ 25.6%, first.last@ 23.7%.
One colleague's address usually gives you the format
Most companies in our data stick to one format. Of the 2,987 companies with three or more name-format addresses in our data, 64.5% used the same format for every one of them, and on average 87.9% of a company's addresses followed its most common format. So the fastest check is one real address from the same company: the team page, a press release, a job post or a podcast show note. Copy its format before you try any other.
Every format, ranked
| Format | Example | Addresses | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| first | john@ | 39,163 | 31.3% |
| flast | jsmith@ | 32,097 | 25.6% |
| first.last | john.smith@ | 29,681 | 23.7% |
| other | none of the above (nicknames, middle initials, numbers, other spellings) | 14,026 | 11.2% |
| firstl | johns@ | 2,750 | 2.2% |
| firstlast | johnsmith@ | 2,103 | 1.7% |
| f.last | j.smith@ | 1,458 | 1.2% |
| last | smith@ | 1,226 | 1% |
| fl | js@ | 914 | 0.7% |
| lastf | smithj@ | 582 | 0.5% |
| first_last | john_smith@ | 575 | 0.5% |
| first.l | john.s@ | 326 | 0.3% |
| last.first | smith.john@ | 193 | 0.2% |
| role inbox | info@, sales@, office@ and similar | 43 | under 0.1% |
| first-last | john-smith@ | 32 | under 0.1% |
| lastfirst | smithjohn@ | 18 | under 0.1% |
The top format in 25 industries
The 25 industries with the most addresses in our data (500 or more each). The industry is the one on the contact's company record.
| Industry | Addresses | Top format | Second |
|---|---|---|---|
| Computer Software | 14,818 | first (43.1%) | first.last (28.4%) |
| Financial Services | 10,749 | first (31.7%) | flast (25.6%) |
| Hospital & Health Care | 6,202 | flast (34.2%) | first.last (26.9%) |
| Information Technology and Services | 5,466 | first.last (34.1%) | first (25%) |
| Non-Profit Organization Management | 3,546 | flast (38.2%) | first (20.5%) |
| Internet | 3,511 | first (53.3%) | first.last (22.9%) |
| Marketing and Advertising | 3,282 | first (51.4%) | first.last (17.5%) |
| Religious Institutions | 3,214 | flast (32.1%) | first (27.3%) |
| Food & Beverages | 3,158 | first (44.6%) | flast (21.7%) |
| Construction | 2,989 | flast (36.4%) | first (35.2%) |
| Food Production | 2,229 | flast (30.5%) | first (27.9%) |
| Higher Education | 2,059 | flast (31.2%) | first.last (24.8%) |
| Health, Wellness and Fitness | 1,912 | first (41.1%) | first.last (21.1%) |
| Biotechnology | 1,879 | first.last (30.2%) | flast (28.2%) |
| Retail | 1,710 | first (37.1%) | first.last (22.6%) |
| Management Consulting | 1,650 | first (32.3%) | flast (25.7%) |
| Real Estate | 1,533 | flast (33%) | first (31.9%) |
| Consumer Goods | 1,485 | first (39.7%) | flast (26.6%) |
| Law Practice | 1,453 | flast (31.9%) | first (25.5%) |
| Civic & Social Organization | 1,220 | flast (32.8%) | first (30.5%) |
| Mental Health Care | 1,204 | flast (31.3%) | first (25.4%) |
| Education Management | 1,058 | flast (43.2%) | first.last (18.5%) |
| Investment Management | 1,048 | flast (35.8%) | first (22.2%) |
| Accounting | 1,023 | flast (38%) | first (21.1%) |
| Staffing and Recruiting | 994 | flast (31.6%) | first (29.8%) |
Before you send to a guessed address
- Look for one real address at the company and copy its format.
- With none, take the finder's top row for the person's industry.
- Run the guess through an email verifier. A catch-all domain accepts every address, so a pass there does not prove the inbox exists.
- Clean the whole list before a campaign: the free email list cleaner removes duplicates, bad addresses and role inboxes in your browser.
Small and local businesses
Name formats fit companies with a team. Many local businesses answer at a free mailbox instead: on the 45 Sales.co local business lists, the median share of Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and similar addresses is 36.5% (counted September 3, 2026 to October 21, 2026), and a free mailbox has no company format to guess. For those, a list with the address the business already lists is quicker: Sales.co sells one-time business email lists by industry at $295 each, for example the general contractors email list. You can also check how many businesses of a type are in each state first.
Questions
What is the most common company email format?
first@company.com (john@) is the most common: 31.3% of 125,187 company addresses with a known first and last name in Sales.co's contact database, counted November 4, 2026. flast@ (jsmith@) is second at 25.6% and first.last@ (john.smith@) third at 23.7%.
How do I find a company's email format?
Find one address of someone who works there (a press release, the team page, a podcast show note or an email you already got) and copy its format: in 64.5% of the 2,987 companies with three or more name-format addresses in our data, every address used the same format. With no address to copy, start with the top format in the finder above, then check it with an email verifier before you send.
What email formats are there?
The 14 name-based formats the finder ranks are first (john@), flast (jsmith@), first.last (john.smith@), firstl (johns@), firstlast (johnsmith@), f.last (j.smith@), last (smith@), fl (js@), lastf (smithj@), first_last (john_smith@), first.l (john.s@), last.first (smith.john@), first-last (john-smith@), lastfirst (smithjohn@). 11.2% of addresses matched none of them (a nickname, a middle initial, a number or another word). Role inboxes such as info@ and sales@ have no name in them, so they sit outside these formats.
What does a professional email format look like?
A professional address uses the company's own domain and the person's name, most often first@ (john@) or flast@ (jsmith@). In our data 88.8% of company addresses followed one of the 14 name formats above. Free mailboxes (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) carry no company format, so the finder leaves them out.
Does the format change by industry?
Yes, in places. first@ leads overall, but in 16 of the 25 largest industries in the table below another format leads, for example Hospital & Health Care (flast@, 34.2%), Information Technology and Services (first.last@, 34.1%), Non-Profit Organization Management (flast@, 38.2%). Pick the industry in the finder to rank by its own shares.
Where the numbers come from
- Source: Sales.co's B2B contact database (the contacts we gather for client campaigns), read November 4, 2026. A random sample of 200,000 of its 3,995,157 contact records; 135,651 unique addresses after removing repeats and records with no email.
- Left out: 399 free-mail addresses (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook and similar) and 10,065 addresses with no usable first and last name. 125,187 addresses were counted.
- Method: each address is compared with the first and last name on the same record (accents removed, letters only, first word of the first name). An address that matches none of the 14 formats is "other"; info@, sales@, office@ and 20 similar names are "role inbox". Industries with fewer than 500 addresses are not shown.
- Only counts leave the database: no address, name or company is stored on this page. Refreshed monthly.
If you'd rather not find addresses yourself, Sales.co runs done-for-you cold email from $2,000 a month for up to 10,000 emails: we find the contacts, write and send the emails, and pass you the replies. See pricing.
Where to go next
all free Sales.co tools · free email list cleaner · email spam checker · email lists · B2B email list providers compared · Sales.co home