how are people getting numbers at the start of their gamertag? how can i?

Hi there!

You cannot set or use a gamertag that starts with a number. It should start with alphabet letters. I am not sure why you can still find gamertags with numbers from the beginning but most probably those are old gamertags.

As long as no one else has it, you'll need to give the system time to update so it recognizes the original was freed up.

Its how the new gamertag system works. Its so you can have whatever gamertag you want even if its already taken. It will add the numbers so that people can find you when searching that gamertag. (They will need to enter the numbers so that they find you
and not the other person with the same gamertag).

Thanks for the reply, I thought with the new gamertag system, multiple people can have the same name but they just have different numbers. Is there a cap to how many different people have that certain name?

Hi Maren. My name is Kyle and I'm an independent advisor.

If a gamertag is already taken, a suffix with numbers is attached to differentiate you from other people with the same gamertag. It's not possible to remove this suffix, as it means a profile already has claimed this gamertag without the suffix.

Keep in mind that even if you can't find a profile with this same gamertag, it doesn't mean the profile doesn't exist. Some player's won't show up when you search for them, depending on the profile's privacy settings.

Please reach back if you have further questions.