That name is unavailable

Community General Discussion
1

Is this a bug or something? Some names are impossible to get. Apart from the content the patch has to offer, I enjoy the roleplaying aspect of WoW but some names are just impossible to obtain. A couple of times, probably more than 5 times I have contacted several GMs about this and they all told me to wait for the name to be available but that isn’t the problem here. Some names, ( even though there is nothing wrong with them ) aren’t available for us to get. Whenever you try to get the name it says ( That name is unavailable ) instead of ( This name is not available on that realm ). So basically the name is unobtainable at all times and GMs do not understand the situation here no matter how detailed I explain them the issue.

I am aware that some people create level 1 characters on every realm just to hold the name in their accounts and I believe this should not be allowed.

2

How do you know that people aren’t playing the character with the name you want?

What exactly do you want blizzard to do? Take the name away from another player because you want it?

10 Likes
3

Names are released after an account has been inactive for two expansions. Short of that nothing else can be done.

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4

As long as the account is active (aka the character doesn’t need to be logged in to ever) then the name is claimed to them.

It’s not a bug. The game is 15 years old, names get taken.

7 Likes
5

No bug, someone else has the name, considering the game is 16 years old and they don’t release names for two expansions, then yes, most of the good ones are taken.

I have never had that second error message, I always get that name is unavailable, even on a name like andrew.

1 Like
6

You can check this by attempting to add that character as a friend.

7

Some names are hard reserved by the system to stop a player using them, you can usually tell when it comes back with an immediate decline.

While a few names like I believe Garrosh? and Lucy? show as OK, but when you go to use them, error.

Normal in account already obtained names tend to take like 3 to 5 seconds to come back with a yes or no if it is OK.

2 Likes
8

Heres the issue buddy, as long as the player that holds said names are playing (be it with other characters or other realms), theres is no rule that anyone should hold a name of that character, however, how would you fix it? If they don’t play on said character for a while then the character should be deleted? I would possibly say “No” to the idea, I’m sorry, but… I guess it’s a first come, first serve deal, you’ll have to be lucky for the person to even play the game anymore before you can request them for the name to be free.

9

Shockingly enough, the names you think of might not be as unique as you think. Others might have thought of them before you.

10 Likes
10

… or search the Armoury (except that characters L10 or less won’t show up).

2 Likes
11

Yeah that’s a major downside considering a lot of names are reserved by lvl 1 characters, the add friend method is much more reliable.

12

It would be nice if it said, “that name is on an active account”, or “that name will be free in X months (Approximately)” or in the next expac.

3 Likes
13

How exactly do you “not allow” people to create characters with names?

14

People would abuse the heck out of that one, imagine the name wars when some good names are imminently about to be released on a popular realm.

3 Likes
15

If you’re getting the same result from every realm, it’s more likely to be this:

There are some names that, for various reasons, cannot be used.

3 Likes
16

Yes, the name is not avaiable on every realm even in every region but I see that almost 50 people have the name whenever I check it through Armory and some of them are still active.

17

Esp. if a name is being chosen at an RP level.

That’s a name that’s had cyclic popularity.

How “un-RP” would it to be to use a spelling with non-English characters/symbols?

18

They could have had the name for years. My memory’s a bit crap, but I don’t think there was any sort of censoring of names in the early days of Wow.

19

I just wish Blizzard would let us get those names when they are not in use. I have been trying to get it since the last 3 years and it is indeed frustrating.

20

@All: Pretty much this.

1 Like