Are they going to release a list of realms?

is there going to be a list of realm names to roll on? would be nice to have a realm pre determined with friends before the server launches

They will by Aug 13th at the latest, since you can reserve up to 3 names on that date

Yes.

I wonder what they mean by “before name reservations start on August 13”? My guess is it wouldn’t be too much earlier.

It means “not on the 13th.”

A few days would be fine.