there have been some issues reported in another thread about the names not becoming available again. you can petition it though.
So you are saying doing an in game petition for a GM is the way to go? I've been waiting 2 weeks for this to be resolved and I also did a bug report. I hate to bother the GM's for something that needs to be fixed globally.
From what I've read in other posts, it appears it's been there a long time. Best if you submit a petition and let them handle it on a personal basis until they get a global fix implemented.