According to this blizzards article on the name reservation -
“If you change your mind about a character and have already created your three, you will need to choose a character to delete. Please note, the name associated with the character deleted will be immediately available again to be claimed.”
Will this only be applicable prior to launch? Meaning if I reserve a name - and then decide in 30 days i want to change the class i reserved under; will I risk losing the name to someone in that minute that I recreate my character?
If you delete the name, it is no longer reserved.
Yes you risk losing the name. It’s like it always has been 
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It’s a risk you’ll just have to take. I’ve done it many times and never got blocked from the name. I suppose it is more likely with less servers, but the chances really of someone taking your name while you create a new toon are too small to consider.
yes.
but the probability of if happening in the short time it takes you to create a character is very low. Unless you’re a streamer in which case, rip.
Can someone from Blizzard confirm that this will be the norm after launch. Or has this always been the case even back in 2004
Is there a chance that Oooooooooooo will be taken?
It’s always been the case. It’s in the name thread that blizz has posts in. Look there.
Okay cool - for some reason I thought we had the name even after deletion in retail for like a small period of time.
If it really bothers you, create a character in wowheads dressing room, so you know exactly the build you want.
then do your deletion some time later.
After launch, do it when the initial surge dies down, like later that night because less people will be getting on and creating characters.
On Live it saves the name to your account for a certain period of time. But there’s a minimum level for that. No idea what it is. It’s not level 1 though.
I should note maybe it doesn’t work that way anymore but I’m 100% sure it did once. I have two accounts, but they weren’t always on the same Battle net account. Years back I tried to delete a character from one and make it on the other. It said the name was unavailable. Yet I could make a character with that name on the first account, so it’s not like someone nabbed it. But no idea if that’s how it still works.
On Live it saves the name to your account for a certain period of time. But there’s a minimum level for that. No idea what it is. It’s not level 1 though.
I should note maybe it doesn’t work that way anymore but I’m 100% sure it did once. I have two accounts, but they weren’t always on the same Battle net account. Years back I tried to delete a character from one and make one with the same name on the other. It said the name was unavailable. Yet I could make a character with that name on the first account, so it’s not like someone nabbed it. But no idea if that’s how it still works.