I want to change my character’s name to something else. I checked to make sure it was available, both in-game and in on the WoW Armory. I bought a Character Name change, went to change it, got a green check, submitted it, and … “That name is unavailable.”
I tried to open a ticket to speak to someone at Blizzard, but every time I put in that I had an issue with a character name, it sent me to a description of how to buy another character name change so that was totally useless.
What gives?
Neither search may work if the character is below 10, or if it’s locked to an account due to a character deletion or paid service. Both can put locks on a name that a variable. GMs can’t help in any case.
You should always try creating a character with the name you want before buying a name change to ensure it’s available.
There are many reasons a name may come up as unavailable, that does not just mean someone else is using it. It could be on a banned/reserved list.
When checking for the name in-game, Kyrshin, did you create a character with that name? Or was it just to the point of the green check in character creation?
It’s likely that the name you want is on a reserved or prohibited list, which is why it is “available” but not. Without knowing the name I couldn’t be sure, even if I did I might not have access to the specific reserved list the name is on.
Since the name change token is unused and it was a recent purchase, you should be able to use the Refund system to automatically request a refund. Assuming you don’t have another name in mind that you’ll use instead.
Thanks for the reply! I wanted to change the name of my mage “Setsushimi” to {Removed} if that helps.
It does. It does look like that name is currently taken, however, it may be eligible to be renamed.
The way the system works now is that if the name is eligible to be renamed (meaning the account hasn’t been active for approximately 2 expansions) if someone goes to create a character with that name the system checks for availability. If it is able to be renamed the character with name is changed and flagged for a rename and the new character claims the name.
If you only tested the name availability by entering the name during the character creation step but never actually created the character, that may be why it is showing green but not allowing you to change the character name with the Name Change Token.
As far as I know, the Name Change Token doesn’t go through that system and will only allow you to use a name that is not currently in use. It’s why I asked that question in my previous post. 
So, I would create a new character with the name you want on your realm. Assuming it lets you, log it in once, then delete it. Once you do that you should be able to use the Name Change Token on your other character.
This won’t help OP. but I JUST had the same problem. I swapped a character from one realm to another, and it said the name was flagged for a change and would not let me change the name, despite me knowing the name was available.
I had to create a character with the same name, regardless, then just delete it and I was able to rename my character to that.
I had this happen recently as well. I started character creation to check if a name was available, got the green check, tried to rename an existing character and told it was in use. Once I created and deleted a new character of that name, it was available for me to use for a rename.
(Just adding my experience, in case someone looks for this issue in the future.)
It does seem to be a technical “quirk” or perhaps a limitation of the system to auto-release names that lines up with a few different claims over the past few months.