Hi Mario49. Thanks for your help. Unfortunately I was not very clear in describing my problem. I have a good apple ID. It is my email address. When I try to create an Icloud.com email account it does not allow an email address as the name input ( name@icloud .com). It will not create an icloud email account with any other name I enter as a potential ID - not even the ones it suggests. I think there may be some kind of conflict with using my email address as my Apple ID. I'm stuck. I cannot create an icloud email address. Any ideas.
pete099