[Noxid]

I think name changes being necessary to be done under a GM's jurisdiction is fine as it is. I'd rather not make the gap of independence with GMs and Players bigger. Names are mainly used for the Guard Force to identify people, and some more malicious people could use this to make IC a whole lot level of complicated mess. Even if I'm indeed, torn a little.

Perhaps being able to change your name only once per key, like Aisha's Respec works, can be plausible?

If the guards do indeed need to do see actual names then this raises a new issue. There are people out there who rework an existing character into a new one and never bother to get it renamed as they don't want to hassle the GMs (You can just throw an alias on so it's not a big deal). Then the guards will be incorrectly identifying people. Surely it would be a good idea for people to be able to fixed their names themselves hassle free?

Why would you rather not see the gap increased? This just seems like pointless work for the GMs to be handling personally to me but we would have to get their opinion on that. Clockworkers Doll did raise a good suggestion as far as a restriction could go. Simply limit it's use to X amount of ingame or real life days, to prevent spam. Actually part of the reason I suggested air be the one to change your name is because they give you the passage papers and I know guards use those to identify people.