World of Warcraft Name Reclamation

In a blog post today on the WoW Battle.net, it has been stated that they are, potentially, running out of names.

What this means for players, is that anyone who hasn't logged in since 13th November 2008, will have their name stripped from them and put back into the pool. This will allow new players to pick it and not be greeted with a "This name is unavailable" message.

But if it has been nearly six years since you last played, you still have time to come back and reclaim it. 

How Do I Preserve My Names?

You will need to log in to World of Warcraft and enter the game using each character whose name you wish to retain before patch 6.0.2 goes live. While it is possible no one will claim your recently released name and you might be able to snag it again, it is probably not worth the risk if you want to keep your names intact long-term.

This means that by the newest expansion, Warlords of Draenor (coming 13th November 2014), you may have to pick new names for your characters.