Change my username but the username I want is already taken and inactive

[thecaptaincto]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Profile

Body

Hello everyone,

My current username is "thecaptaincto". I've been trying to grab the username "captaincto". But that account is very inactive; in fact the only thing that this guy did on his account was to create it and list all of his socials. Not even one repo, one project, no activity at all. I was wondering if there is a way to get the username. He has been inactive since late 2024. I know that GitHub does not permit name-squatting, so I'm wondering if I can somehow get the username by contacting Support or something.

Kind regards,
captaincto

[AmirOsman03]

No — GitHub won’t give you an inactive username just because it’s unused.

Usernames are first-come, first-served, and inactivity alone isn’t enough. Support only intervenes for rare cases like trademarks or impersonation.

Best option: use a close variation of captaincto.

[Isen-Osman]

GitHub usually does not release inactive usernames just because the account has no activity. As far as I know, Support only reclaims usernames in very limited cases, mostly involving trademark issues or clear policy violations.

If the account is simply inactive, there’s unfortunately a good chance the username will remain unavailable. You can still try contacting GitHub Support, but I’d keep expectations realistic.

A practical alternative could be variations like:

• captaincto-dev
• captainctoio
• realcaptaincto
• captain-cto

Good luck though — hopefully you manage to get it someday.

[SAYANA-code]

GitHub usually doesn’t free up usernames just because an account is inactive. Even if the account has no repos or activity, the username still belongs to that user.

You can try contacting GitHub Support, especially if you think it’s username squatting, but there’s no guarantee they’ll release it.

You may need to use a small variation of the name for now.