General purpose bucket naming rules

When you create a general purpose bucket, you choose its name and the AWS Region to create it in. After you create a general purpose bucket, you can't change its name or Region. The following sections provide information about general purpose bucket naming, including naming rules, best practices, and an example for creating a general purpose bucket with a name that includes a globally unique identifier (GUID).

For directory bucket naming rules, see Directory bucket naming rules.

For information on object key names, see Creating object key names.

General purpose buckets naming rules

The following naming rules apply for general purpose buckets.

Example general purpose bucket names

The following example bucket names are valid and follow the recommended naming guidelines for general purpose buckets:

The following example bucket names are valid but not recommended for uses other than static website hosting:

The following example bucket names are not valid:

Best practices

When naming your buckets, consider the following bucket naming best practices.

Choose a bucket naming scheme that is unlikely to cause naming conflicts

If your application automatically creates buckets, choose a bucket naming scheme that is unlikely to cause naming conflicts. Ensure that your application logic will choose a different bucket name if a bucket name is already taken.

Append globally unique identifiers (GUID) to bucket names

We recommend that you create bucket names that are not predictable. Do not write code assuming your chosen bucket name is available unless you have already created the bucket. One method for creating bucket names that are not predictable is to append a Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) to your bucket name, for example, amzn-s3-demo-bucket-a1b2c3d4-5678-90ab-cdef-EXAMPLE11111.

Avoid using dots (.) in bucket names

For best compatibility, we recommend that you avoid using dots (.) in bucket names, except for buckets that are used only for static website hosting. If you include dots in a bucket's name, you can't use virtual-host-style addressing over HTTPS, unless you perform your own certificate validation. This is because the security certificates used for virtual hosting of buckets don't work for buckets with dots in their names.

This limitation doesn't affect buckets used for static website hosting, because static website hosting is only available over HTTP. For more information about virtual-host-style addressing, see Virtual hosting of buckets. For more information about static website hosting, see Hosting a static website using Amazon S3.

Choose a relevant name

When you name a bucket, we recommend that you choose a name that is relevant to you or your business. Avoid using names associated with others. For example, you should avoid using AWS or Amazon in your bucket name.

Reusing bucket names

If a bucket is empty, you can delete it. After a bucket is deleted, the name becomes available for reuse. However, after you delete the bucket, you might not be able to reuse the name for various reasons.

For example, when you delete the bucket and the name becomes available for reuse, another AWS account might create a bucket with that name. In addition, some time might pass before you can reuse the name of a deleted bucket. If you want to use the same bucket name, we recommend that you don't delete the bucket.

Creating a bucket that uses a GUID in the bucket name

The following examples show you how to create a general purpose bucket that uses a GUID at the end of the bucket name.

aws s3api create-bucket \
    --bucket amzn-s3-demo-bucket1$(uuidgen | tr -d - | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' ) \
    --region us-west-1 \
    --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint=us-west-1

import com.amazonaws.regions.Regions;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.AmazonS3;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.AmazonS3ClientBuilder;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.Bucket;
import com.amazonaws.services.s3.model.CreateBucketRequest;

import java.util.List;
import java.util.UUID;

public class CreateBucketWithUUID {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final AmazonS3 s3 = AmazonS3ClientBuilder.standard().withRegion(Regions.US_EAST_1).build();
        String bucketName = "amzn-s3-demo-bucket" +  UUID.randomUUID().toString().replace("-", "");
        CreateBucketRequest createRequest = new CreateBucketRequest(bucketName);
        System.out.println(bucketName);
        s3.createBucket(createRequest);
    }
}