So some people have used some knight names yet they have not logged on for years. Why would they be allowed to keep those names? Why not change their names to some random string and give them a free name change just in case they ever decide to come back(highly unlikely) and allow active players and new ones to enjoy a larger pool of names.
In the past when I used to play wow I would individually contact gm's and politely ask if they could free up a name on an innactive account for me. they were always happy to oblige since those names were otherwise being completely wasted and they could give a name change ( in the unlikely event: if that person that's been gone since they nabbed the name and quit ever decided to return). Doing that I was able to get super rare 2 letter names like "yo" haha.
So naturally I tried to do the same thing with spiral knights gm's. anyone care to take a guess at how that went? haha. it didnt... They said something along the lines of "blah blah privacy blah blah beauracratic bs blah blah trivial rules that we could easily bypass using our intuition and sensibilities but wont because its easier to follow black and white rules.. blah blah"
so +1 to your idea, I really would like for them to do this.
p.s. which names were you thinking of getting?