If you’re mainly interested in having a clean username, why not purchase your own domain? If you pay for a small vps, most registrars will host an email server at no extra cost.
Yeah, do I have a domain name and used my own domain with gmail.
But it sounds volatile to me, if (for some reason) I lose my domain I'd miss a good part of my communications.
Thanks for your advice, I'll see what I can do.