Had to make new name for previous characters

I had to make a new name for previous characters that I made around 2013 because blizzard deemed the names inappropriate. Finally looked at wow armory to look at some of my achievements and forgot the new name I had to give my hunter to discover that the same name I had to change, is still being used by different characters. Not understanding how this works, anyone care to explain? Not mad or anything, just don’t understand how my name is inappropriate. My hunters name was needler.

Not sure why you’ve remade your thread, but the answer remain from the last one:

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I’m not seeing any naming actions.

Did it have letters and numbers?

When you are gone from the game for a long time names periodically get released.

That has nothing to do with inappropriate, it’s freed up so someone can use it if they wish.

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The names did have letters and numbers after them.

I do see another character on this license that has had their name released.

I still think that is what happened, as there are no marks on this account for a bad name, and that one is fine.

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thanks for letting me know.

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As Orlyia said, this means your account was inactive long enough that its characters’ names were released back into the pool of available character names for other players to use. This was accomplished by renaming the characters such that the last part of the character name was changed to random numbers and letters.

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def understandable but some of my toons like in cata classic does not make sense at all. some were made in wrath. to me this is bs. I have been playing this game on and off since 12 yrs old…2007. 3 accounts between me and my dad since he was the main reason i started, free acounts and fake emails for 6 months before he got me a sub. coilfang realm…aqurt…pegizele…my dad mwar. why force my original toon to change name but say it was flagged? pure bs.

i still remember when i had to wait 2 hrs to be in contact with a rep over the phone…pure bs. names used to hold as far as i know of…

Blizzard started releasing names a while back that if u were inactive for 2 expansions that names should be freed up now u can try renaming the same name and hopefully the name is still available.

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Don’t take it personally, it was flagged for inactivity, nothing more.

Blizzard started releasing them through in game support for some time before the developers made it an official policy. This used to be a manual activity, the names were released from time to time, but now it is automatic.

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2 expansions…if i made a dwarf hunter in wrath and he was forced to change his name in cata…how does that work? only lvl 15 btw. just frustrated.

This is one of the earliest such posts relating to name releases.

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a better answer, thank you and sorry for bringing an old post up but still…why should i change my normal toons name?

Was that character on one of the closed realms? If so, it would have been moved to a new realm shortly after Cata Classic launched.

Just wondering if the move would have resulted in a naming conflict.

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There were some realms closed between interations of classic, if your old realm was closed, and characters moved to another realm, priority for the name was given to the original character on the realm, and others were given free name changes.

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coilfang on retail is still available. my toons on retail; were forced to name change and i really wish i took a screenshot but i believed what i was told and decided that needler or slammed was an improper name and was reported. hunter and war respectively.

benediction cata…might have been something forge…but even before transfer wanted me to change name…

If your inactive characters have a name change pending, and the name is free, feel free to use it as long as you feel it is appriopriate.

If the name is in use, then unforatunately there is nothing this forum can do to reclaim it.

They always stated they would try to retain the characters. The names though have always been released on a case by case basis due to inactivity.

I found posts on google that go prior, I linked one above.

The name releases were made official policy be devs in 2014.

release-the-names-character-name-reclamation-coming-9-15-2014

There was always a policy in effect for names on inactive accounts, it is just more automated for free GM time for other issues.

There was never any number to call in regards to this matter. Numbers were reserved for account and technical use only. Though a GM sadly would not be able to return a name currently in use due to being released.

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since when…and what is name change pending…my notice was my name was inappropriate.

sorry but still pissed off.

An edit but doesn’t state it…thank you for answering but making me to be the bad guy? 3 acounts all expansions paid for…least could have done is keep my names.

Also edit…blizzard replaced my evilite dk….with evilbetroling who I created for alt purposes with a friend from 2014 2015 on this account…