> Enrich.chat gives AI agents verified work emails and mobiles. To use it from an agent, read https://enrich.chat/agents.md . This is the Markdown version of https://enrich.chat/tools/email-permutator/

> **Note for agents:** this tool is a web form that people use in a browser, so you cannot submit it. Use the Enrich.chat API instead, as described in https://enrich.chat/agents.md .

# Free email permutator

Type a name and a company domain to list 18 likely work email addresses, or 23 with a middle name. Then verify the right one before you send anything.

By Enrich.chat Editorial. Updated October 15, 2026.

## What you get

- 18 patterns from a first and last name, 5 more with a middle name
- Accents, apostrophes and web prefixes cleaned up for you
- Copy one address or the whole list in one click

These are guesses, not verified addresses. Check the likely one with the free [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/) before you send.

**Short answer:** An email permutator turns a person's name and company domain into the email addresses they are likely to have, such as jane.doe@, jdoe@ and jane@. This free tool builds 18 patterns, or 23 with a middle name, in your browser with no signup or limit. Every result is a guess, so verify one with an [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/) first: [Gmail's sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) tell senders to drop addresses that bounce.

## Key takeaways

- The tool builds 18 address patterns from a first and last name, plus 5 with a middle name. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
- In [Interseller's 2019 study](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/) of over 5 million companies, jane@ style addresses led at firms with up to 50 staff, jdoe@ from 51 to 1,000, and jane.doe@ above 1,000.
- [Gmail](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) and [Yahoo](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) require senders to keep spam rates below 0.3%, and both tell senders to remove addresses that bounce.
- On a catch-all domain every guess is accepted, so no verifier can confirm the right one. Test the domain with the [catch-all checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/) first.

## Guess, check, then send

1. **Enter a name and domain.** Type the first and last name, a middle name if you know it, and the company website, like acme.com.
2. **Copy the patterns.** The tool lists up to 23 addresses right in your browser. Copy one, or copy the whole list.
3. **Verify before you send.** Check the likely address with the [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/), then send one email to the address that comes back verified.

## What does this email permutator generate?

The permutator turns one name and one domain into 18 possible work email addresses, or 23 if you add a middle name. Each address is built from the same few parts: the first name, the last name, their initials, a separator, and the company domain.

**Figure 1: Anatomy of a work email address.** The address jane.doe@acme.com split into its parts. The local part is the first name jane, a dot separator and the last name doe. After the @ sign comes the company domain, acme.com. Below, the same name in four other patterns: jdoe, doe.jane, jane_d and j.doe.

*Every address has a local part, an @ sign and a domain. A permutator only changes the local part. [RFC 5321](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321) caps the local part at 64 octets and the domain at 255.*

Here is every pattern the tool builds, in the order it lists them. In each pattern, {first} and {last} are the full names, and {f} and {l} are their initials. The three formats that lead [Interseller's 2019 pattern study](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/) (jane@, jane.doe@ and jdoe@) all appear in the first four rows.

| Pattern | Jane Doe at acme.com |
| --- | --- |
| `{first}` | jane@acme.com |
| `{first}.{last}` | jane.doe@acme.com |
| `{first}{last}` | janedoe@acme.com |
| `{f}{last}` | jdoe@acme.com |
| `{f}.{last}` | j.doe@acme.com |
| `{first}{l}` | janed@acme.com |
| `{first}.{l}` | jane.d@acme.com |
| `{last}` | doe@acme.com |
| `{last}.{first}` | doe.jane@acme.com |
| `{last}{first}` | doejane@acme.com |
| `{last}{f}` | doej@acme.com |
| `{last}.{f}` | doe.j@acme.com |
| `{first}_{last}` | jane_doe@acme.com |
| `{first}-{last}` | jane-doe@acme.com |
| `{f}{l}` | jd@acme.com |
| `{last}_{first}` | doe_jane@acme.com |
| `{f}_{last}` | j_doe@acme.com |
| `{first}_{l}` | jane_d@acme.com |

Add a middle name and the tool appends five more patterns, where {m} is the middle initial and {middle} the full middle name. For Jane Marie Doe they are:

| Pattern | Jane Marie Doe at acme.com |
| --- | --- |
| `{first}{m}{last}` | janemdoe@acme.com |
| `{first}.{m}.{last}` | jane.m.doe@acme.com |
| `{f}{m}{last}` | jmdoe@acme.com |
| `{first}.{middle}.{last}` | jane.marie.doe@acme.com |
| `{f}{m}{l}` | jmd@acme.com |

### How the tool cleans what you type

- Letters are lowercased and accents are removed, so José becomes jose.
- Anything that is not a letter is dropped, so O'Brien becomes obrien and Smith-Jones becomes smithjones. For a two-part surname, run the tool again with each part.
- The domain loses any https://, www., @ or page path, so https://www.acme.com/about becomes acme.com.
- Duplicates are removed. With no last name, you get only jane@ and j@.

The whole tool runs in your browser. The names you type are never sent to Enrich.chat, and there is no daily limit.

## Which email format do most companies use?

It depends on company size. In [Interseller's study of over 5 million companies](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/), first-name-only addresses like jane@ were the top format at companies with up to 50 employees. First initial plus last name (jdoe@) led from 51 to 1,000 employees, and first.last (jane.doe@) led above 1,000.

**Figure 2: Most common email format by company size.** Stacked bars for eight company sizes show the share of companies using each email format in Interseller's 2019 study. The first-name-only format leads at 1 to 10 employees with 71 percent and at 11 to 50 with 42 percent. First initial plus last name leads from 51 to 1,000 employees at 42 to 45 percent. First.last leads from 1,001 employees up and reaches 56 percent at 10,001 or more.

*Share of companies using each format, by headcount, rounded to whole percent. For Jane Doe, {first} is jane@, {f}{last} is jdoe@ and {first}.{last} is jane.doe@. "All other" is what remains after those three. Source: [Interseller, 2019](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/).*

Interseller is a sales software vendor, the study dates from 2019, and it does not explain how each pattern was measured. Use it to decide which guesses to try first, not to predict one company. First-name-only addresses are common at small firms but risky at large ones, where jane@ may belong to a different Jane.

## How do you find a company's real email format?

Find one real address at the company and copy its pattern. A single confirmed colleague tells you more than any list of guesses.

1. **Run the format finder.** Enter the domain in the free [email format finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-format-finder/) to see the pattern the company uses and whether the domain is catch-all.
2. **Check the directory.** The [company email format directory](https://enrich.chat/email-format/) lists formats company by company.
3. **Look for a public address.** Press releases, author bylines, speaker pages and PDF reports often show a staff email. Match it to a row in the table above.
4. **Apply the pattern to your contact.** If a colleague is sam.lee@acme.com, try jane.doe@acme.com first and skip the other 17 guesses.

Our guide to [business email formats](https://enrich.chat/blog/email-address-formats/) covers each pattern in more depth, and [how to find anyone's work email](https://enrich.chat/blog/how-to-find-someones-email/) covers methods beyond guessing.

## Why should you never email every permutation?

Usually only one guess is the person's real address. The rest bounce or land in a shared catch-all inbox, and every bounce counts against you with mailbox providers.

A message to a mailbox that does not exist usually comes back with status code 5.1.1, which [RFC 3463](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3463) defines as a bad destination mailbox. Gmail, Yahoo and Outlook.com all ask senders to keep these addresses off their lists:

- **Gmail.** [Google's email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) tell senders to unsubscribe people after multiple bounces and to cut volume when messages start bouncing. Since February 1, 2024, every sender to Gmail must keep its spam rate below 0.3%, and senders of more than 5,000 messages a day face stricter rules.
- **Yahoo.** [Yahoo's sender requirements](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) set the same 0.3% spam-rate ceiling. Yahoo also tells senders to remove invalid recipients promptly and warns that mail people ignore or report hurts your reputation.
- **Outlook.com.** [Microsoft's rules for high-volume senders](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftdefenderforoffice365blog/strengthening-email-ecosystem-outlook%E2%80%99s-new-requirements-for-high%E2%80%90volume-senders/4399730), enforced from May 5, 2025 for domains sending over 5,000 emails a day, recommend removing invalid addresses regularly.

Mass-sending guesses can also cross a legal line. Under the US CAN-SPAM Act, a commercial email that already breaks the law becomes an [aggravated violation](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704) if the sender knew the address came from an automated tool that combines "names, letters, or numbers into numerous permutations." In the EU, the European Commission lists an address like name.surname@company.com as an [example of personal data](https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-explained_en) under the GDPR. You are responsible for following the laws that apply to your outreach.

## How do you check which guess is real?

Run the likely addresses through a verifier and send one email to the address that passes. Never use real sends as the test.

**Figure 3: Guess, verify, then send one email.** A three-step workflow. The permutator guesses 18 addresses for Jane Doe. A verifier checks the mailbox, flags catch-all domains and returns a status. Verified means send one email, catch-all means treat the address as risky, and unknown means do not send.

*Guess, verify, then send one email. [Gmail](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126) and [Yahoo](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) both tell senders to remove addresses that bounce.*

1. Start with the company's known format, or the first few rows from the permutator.
2. Check the name and domain in the free [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/). It returns the work email with its status: verified, catch_all or unknown. The website tools share 10 free lookups.
3. Send one email to the address that comes back verified. Delete the rest of the list.

If you start from a LinkedIn profile, the [LinkedIn email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/linkedin-email-finder/) skips the guessing step. For a whole list, your AI agent can run the same check through the [Enrich.chat API for agents](https://enrich.chat/agents/). It gets 10 free lookups a day. After that, monthly plans start at $29 for 100,000 credits, a work email found uses 10 credits, and a lookup that finds nothing uses 0. See [pricing](https://enrich.chat/pricing/) for every plan.

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find the verified work email for Jane Doe at acme.com, and tell me if the domain is catch-all
```

### What if the domain is catch-all?

A catch-all domain accepts mail for any address, so every guess looks valid and no verifier can confirm the right one. [Google Workspace](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/gmail/advanced/get-misaddressed-email-in-a-catch-all-mailbox?hl=en), for example, lets admins route mail sent to non-existent addresses into one shared mailbox.

Test the domain first with the [catch-all checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/). If it is catch-all, send only to a format you confirmed from a real colleague's address, keep volume low, and watch for replies. Enrich.chat marks these results as catch_all, not verified, so you can see the risk on every address.

## Where did the email permutator come from?

An early email permutator was a free Google Docs spreadsheet. On June 12, 2012, Rob Ousbey of the SEO agency Distilled [published it](https://web.archive.org/web/20130216043904/http://www.distilled.net:80/blog/miscellaneous/find-almost-anybodys-email-address/) with a video on how to use it. It listed the likely addresses for a name and a domain.

Users pasted the list into Gmail and checked it with Rapportive, a Gmail sidebar that showed social profiles for an address. [LinkedIn bought Rapportive](https://thenextweb.com/news/linkedin-officially-acquires-contextual-gmail-contact-plugin-rapportive) in February 2012. In the comments, Ousbey noted the trick only worked when a person had tied that address to an online service. He also pointed to the other route: asking the mail server whether an address exists. The Enrich.chat email finder takes a different route: it looks the address up in our contact data and shows a status.

LinkedIn later renamed the plugin Sales Navigator for Gmail and [shut it down on March 18, 2020](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedins-shutting-down-its-sales-navigator-gmail-extension/572478/), citing low adoption. The spreadsheet idea outlived it. This tool builds the same kind of list, and a verifier does the checking.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is an email permutator?

An email permutator is a tool that lists the possible email addresses for a person, based on their name and company domain. It combines the first name, last name, initials and separators into patterns like jane.doe@acme.com and jdoe@acme.com. It does not check whether any address exists. Use it to build a short list, then confirm one address with an [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/) before you send anything.

### Is this email permutator free?

Yes. This email permutator is free, needs no signup and has no daily limit, because it runs entirely in your browser. The name and domain you type are not sent to Enrich.chat. The lookup tools on this site, such as the [email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/), work differently: they run lookups on our servers and share 10 free lookups per visitor.

### How many email combinations does the tool create?

The tool creates 18 combinations from a first and last name. It uses full names and initials in both orders, joined by nothing, a dot, an underscore or a dash. Adding a middle name gives 5 more, for 23 in total. Duplicates are removed, and with no last name you get just two. You can copy one address or the whole list in one click.

### What is the most common business email format?

It depends on company size. In [Interseller's 2019 study](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/) of over 5 million companies, first name only (jane@) led at companies with up to 50 employees, first initial plus last name (jdoe@) led from 51 to 1,000, and first.last (jane.doe@) led above 1,000. To learn one company's format for sure, find one real address there or run the [email format finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-format-finder/).

### Will emailing guessed addresses hurt my sender reputation?

Yes, if many of them bounce. [Gmail](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126), [Yahoo](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/) and Outlook.com all tell senders to remove invalid addresses, and Gmail and Yahoo require spam rates below 0.3%. Sending one person 18 guesses creates a burst of bounces from one domain. Verify first, then send a single email to the address that passes. If the domain accepts everything, use the [catch-all checker](https://enrich.chat/tools/catch-all-checker/).

### Is it legal to use an email permutator?

Generating guesses is not illegal by itself, but how you use them matters. Under the US CAN-SPAM Act, commercial email that already breaks the law becomes an [aggravated violation](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704) when the sender knew the address came from a permutation tool. In the EU, a work email like name.surname@company.com is [personal data](https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-explained_en) under the GDPR. Verify addresses, send relevant messages and follow the laws that apply to you.

## Sources

1. [Top Email Address Patterns By Company Size](https://www.interseller.io/blog/2019/02/04/top-email-address-patterns-by-company-size/)
2. [Email sender guidelines](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126)
3. [Sender Best Practices](https://senders.yahooinc.com/best-practices/)
4. [Strengthening Email Ecosystem: Outlook's New Requirements for High-Volume Senders](https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoftdefenderforoffice365blog/strengthening-email-ecosystem-outlook%E2%80%99s-new-requirements-for-high%E2%80%90volume-senders/4399730)
5. [15 U.S. Code 7704: Other protections for users of commercial electronic mail](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/7704)
6. [Data protection explained: what is personal data?](https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/data-protection-explained_en)
7. [RFC 5321: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc5321)
8. [RFC 3463: Enhanced Mail System Status Codes](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3463)
9. [Get misaddressed email in a catch-all mailbox](https://knowledge.workspace.google.com/admin/gmail/advanced/get-misaddressed-email-in-a-catch-all-mailbox?hl=en)
10. [Find (Almost) Anybody's Email Address (archived copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20130216043904/http://www.distilled.net:80/blog/miscellaneous/find-almost-anybodys-email-address/)
11. [LinkedIn officially acquires Rapportive, but will continue supporting Gmail contact plugin](https://thenextweb.com/news/linkedin-officially-acquires-contextual-gmail-contact-plugin-rapportive)
12. [LinkedIn's Shutting Down its Sales Navigator Gmail Extension](https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/linkedins-shutting-down-its-sales-navigator-gmail-extension/572478/)

## Skip the guessing

Your agent can ask for the real address instead. The email endpoint returns the work email with its status: verified, catch_all or unknown. A lookup that finds nothing uses 0 credits.

```bash
curl "https://enrich.chat/v1/email?name=Jane%20Doe&domain=acme.com"
```

## Try this prompt

Get the real address, not a guess

```text
Use www.enrich.chat to find the verified work email for [name] at [company domain], and tell me if the domain is catch-all
```

## Related

- [Email format finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-format-finder/)
- [Free email finder](https://enrich.chat/tools/email-finder/)
- [Business email address formats](https://enrich.chat/blog/email-address-formats/)