I also deleted my gmail emial address by mistake i tried to start a new gmail emial account wiht the same username but it says it no longer exits! so does that mean i cna never have my old username back? and also no one else will be able to use the same username. sorry for askign so many questions but sine i read you have a lot of experience in this issue. thank you very very much fo ryour help:)

when i remember my old username gmail..I feel sorry & depressed about it.

But I guess it is a good thing not to allow you to re-use an old name. Think about a long-time Gmail user, and how many services she might have registered and set that account as the main email. Some of them might have personal data. If one day she closes the Gmail account without closing those old services or changing the associated email, and if Google would allow for re-use of usernames, then those forgotten accounts and a password reminder feature is all someone needs to get hold of all that private information.

So, I feel much safer knowing that, even if I don’t want to use my Gmail account anymore, no one will be able to impersonate me.

I guess that what Google would have wanted you to do is to close the Gmail service, but not the Google account. This way, you could have re-opened your Gmail with the same username. But I do agree with you that it could have been better explained in the account deletion page.

Best,
-c