Early name reservation for World of Warcraft: Forever runs from 27 October to 3 November 2026. Blizzard's post of 20 October gives the start time in each region and says who can reserve. Names go first come, first served, and none is guaranteed. Every character will have two names, and it's the full pair that has to be unique in your region.

Name reservation timeline: when it opens and closes

Region	Opens (Blizzard's time)	The same moment in UTC (our maths)
Europe	27 October, 18:00 CET	27 October, 17:00 UTC
North America	27 October, 1:00 p.m. PDT	27 October, 20:00 UTC
Korea	28 October, 07:00 KST	27 October, 22:00 UTC
Taiwan	28 October, 07:00 CST	27 October, 23:00 UTC

Reservation runs to 3 November, and Blizzard gives no closing hour. The UTC column is ours: Europe's clocks went back on 25 October, so CET is one hour ahead of UTC that day. US clocks don't go back until 1 November, so PDT is seven hours behind. Korea is nine hours ahead and Taiwan eight. The window is on our calendar, and our release date piece covers launch day.

Who can reserve a name, and how many?

Blizzard's 20 October post says players who pre-purchase the Skyborne Heroic Pack, the Skyborne Epic Pack or the limited-time Warcraft Forever Collection get Early Name Reservation. Those are paid packs (a pre-purchase is a purchase made before launch). Its small print says a purchase of the Forever Digital Upgrade or Collector's Edition is required, and that the benefit only applies to the account it was bought for.

• Up to three characters, in total. That's across every ruleset, the kind of world a character lives in. Blizzard's example: make two on a PvP (player versus player) ruleset, where players fight each other, and you can make only one more on a Normal or Role-Play one.
• Only during reservation. Blizzard says this restriction only applies to Early Name Reservation.
• Roleplay-PvP looks to be on the list. On 22 October Blizzard said it will add a Roleplay-PvP ruleset for launch, and was "working hard" to let you reserve names there from 27 October. Its 27 October post about a bug tells some players to make their Roleplay or Roleplay-PvP characters first, so our reading is that you can pick it now. Our rulesets piece covers every ruleset.

To reserve, install Forever through the Battle.net desktop app, Blizzard's game launcher. Pick World of Warcraft, then World of Warcraft: Forever in the Game Version menu above the Play button, and install it. Press Play, choose a ruleset and create up to three characters with the names you want.

Two bugs Blizzard has flagged

• "That name is restricted" when it shouldn't be. The game checks names against a restricted list, such as big characters from Warcraft's story and names blocked for technical reasons. Blizzard's 27 October post says a bug made that check too strict: for example, it was blocking names containing "c-o-n". Blizzard said the fix would come with the next realm restarts in each region. After that, if a name you think should be allowed was refused, try it again.
• Oceania on Australian servers: make Roleplay characters first. Blizzard's 27 October post says that if you make a Normal or PvP character first, the Roleplay and Roleplay-PvP rulesets stop being offered for your later characters. It says the bug should only hit players in Oceania (Australia and nearby) connecting to Australian servers, and that it's working on a fix urgently.

How the two-name system works

Each character has two names, which Blizzard's naming post of 21 September compares to a first name and a surname.

• The pair is what counts. Somebody else taking the first name you love doesn't necessarily rule it out: two characters can share a first name as long as their full names are different.
• Unique across your region, not one realm. Forever is realmless: a name is no longer tied to one realm, one of the separate game servers, so your full name has to be free in the whole region.
• Shared surnames are fine. Blizzard's own example gives Asha, Thalen and Mira the same family-style second name, Brightvale. A guild could use a shared naming theme too, as long as each full name is free.

Will my name pass? A checklist

• Is the full pair free in your region? Only the pair has to be unique.
• Does it follow the code of conduct? Names still have to meet the in-game code of conduct for names.
• Could it confuse people, pose as Blizzard or the World of Warcraft team, or clash with existing naming policies? Those may be restricted.
• Does it use certain words, spellings or repeated-character patterns? Some of those may be restricted too.
• Did you split a restricted word across the two names? Blizzard can check both halves together, so that won't necessarily get through.
• Did you get there first? Reservation is first come, first served.

If the pair is taken or fails the rules, you pick another one, or roll the in-game random name generator.

What happens when a name breaks the rules

A Blizzard staff post of 24 September says the beta, the test version before launch, was getting forced name changes, as of that post, for characters that broke the naming policies. Some testers whose names were far outside Blizzard's code of conduct lost beta access altogether.

The post says the World of Warcraft development team carried out those actions itself, and each one was individually reviewed. Customer Service can't and won't help with appeals. The post added that Blizzard's system for enforcing naming standards would come online "very shortly", and asked testers not to go poking at it, because that risks losing beta access too.

How to hide your second name

1. Press Escape to open the Game Menu.
2. Pick Options, then Nameplates.
3. Click the checkbox for "My Secondary Name".

Your second name no longer shows in the game world, but it still shows in chat.

Our take: easier names, and a paid head start

Our reading is that two names make a favourite first name much easier to get, because nobody can own it outright anymore. The other side is that reserving early is a perk of the paid packs, and first come, first served means a name somebody reserves is gone. An early pick of a name isn't power in a fight, and we're not calling it pay-to-win. We'd still plan a few backup pairs either way.

Planning the character itself? Our talent calculator and hunter pet reference help with that.