Forced to Change My WoW Character Name

Character names can be changed, or flagged for a name change, for a variety of reasons:

• Modern World of Warcraft characters that are inactive for more than 2 expansions may be renamed to allow active players the use of those names
• Classic versions of World of Warcraft will periodically rename inactive characters. Customer Support has no information on when inactive names will be made available
  • To be considered active you must log into the version of World of Warcraft with the character whose name you wish to preserve. For example, playing on a Modern World of Warcraft character will not preserve a Classic or Season of Discovery character's name. 
• Characters transferring to new realms may be flagged for a name change if their name was in use on the new realm
• Characters whose names were blocklisted or reserved after the character was created may be forced to pick a new name after a character service
• Characters whose names were reported may be forced to change their names to pick one which is not a violation of the naming policies

In any of these cases, you should log in on the character and pick a new name. If your character has not been accessed for a long time and the name was released for inactivity, you may be able to get the same name again, but for any characters that were penalized, you should pick a new name to avoid an account action. 

All player-made names must follow our Naming Policy.