Names are not the issue.
Type /groster to show the actual guild roster.
Then click on someone in the guild roster, then run this…
/run local i= GetGuildRosterSelection(); local na,ra,rai,lv,cls,zn,no,off,onl,b,clsbig,achp,achi,f,g,rep,cid=GetGuildRosterInfo(i); print(i,na,ra,rai,lv,cls,zn,no,off,onl,b,clsbig,achp,achi,f,g,rep,cid)
what you get back is
index, name, rank, rank index, level, class, zone, public note, officer note, online, ?, classbig, achievement points, achievement rank, ?, ?, guild rep status index, Unique Character Identification
When someone does a name change, the Unique Character Identification number/code remains the same. As someone suggested, allowing a two part name would not be such a problem. They could either allow us to use a dash in the name (as there already is with Name-Server), or simply add another column in the database for second name, (and a second edit box on the character creation screen) and then handle the spacing (“SPACE” or “-”) programmatically.
Essentially the name we see in the interface is cosmetic anyway - and the program uses the unique identifier for characters.
It would be a bit of work to set-up but I don’t see any big issues with making it work.
Then they can merge more realms.