Questions
What happens after I request a name?
You get a confirmation email straight away. Then one of us contacts you from a personal address to confirm what you want and set it up. Requests are handled by hand, one family member at a time, so it can take a little while.
Will I be charged anything now?
No. There's no payment on this site. Prices are listed so you know what to expect: $36 a year for email forwarding ($18 for each extra family member) and $12 a year for a website address, included with email. You only pay once you've said yes.
Who can request a name?
Anyone named Wilssens, and the people they share a household with: partners, children, anyone who's family. If you're requesting for relatives too, list them on the form.
Someone already requested my name. Can I still ask for it?
Yes. Your request is saved as a backup. If the first request doesn't go ahead, you're next, and we'll tell you either way. Meanwhile, try a middle initial (jan-p) or a middle name (jan-pieter): those are often free.
Why are some names never available?
Names like www, mail, admin, support or info are kept for running the domain. A few are already in use by family sites. And once a name has been given to someone, it's never given to anyone else, even if they stop using it, so mail meant for them never reaches a stranger.
Which names can I use?
2 to 30 characters: lowercase letters a to z, digits and single hyphens between words. No hyphen at the start or end. Accents are dropped, so Hélène becomes helene.
How does email forwarding work?
Mail sent to your wilssens.com address is passed on to the inbox you already use, like Gmail or Outlook. You keep reading and replying from there.
What does the website address do?
It points jan.wilssens.com at a site you already have, on Squarespace, Wix, WordPress or elsewhere. Your site stays where it is; it just gets a family address.
What if the domain lapses, or I want to leave?
The domain is renewed years ahead, so your address doesn't depend on anyone remembering a bill. If you leave, you can take your mail with you: you'll always be able to change where it forwards, and we'll help you move to your own address.
Privacy
What we store. When you request a name we keep what you type into the form: the name, what you'd like, your full name, email address, country, any family names and how you heard about us, the time you agreed to this, and who shared the link with you if you came from one. We also keep a one-way hash of your IP address for up to a day to stop spam.
Why. Only to handle your request and contact you about it. We don't sell it, share it or use it for marketing. It's stored with Cloudflare, and confirmation emails are sent through Resend.
Spam check. The form uses Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from bots.
Analytics. We count visits, searches and requests with PostHog to learn whether this is useful. It stores an anonymous id in your browser's local storage and sets no cookies. We don't send the names you search for.
Having your request deleted. Reply to your confirmation email, or write to the address it came from, and ask. We'll delete your request and tell you when it's done. If a name was already set up for you, we keep only the name itself on a list of names that are never reused.