When the heck did this start? 4 of my pet’s names have been changed, which is kind of ridiculous. Because I didn’t log in for a period of time I can’t get my pet’s names back? ?

The names were cleared so other users can have them, instead of abandoned or frozen accounts keeping the names to where they cannot be used. This is not a slight against you, but how the site's system works, and it takes a year for them to be up for clearing.

You get a free name change with the changed pet, and your name might be free again, you just have to check.

This is a far better system than the old way where they deleted accounts. So thankfully your progress on anything isn't lost. Your free renames have no time limit to be used by. Or if you got rid of those pets the new owner would also get the free rename. Its tied to the pet specifically. But I'd go looking on the open name threads there might be some neat ones up for use now.

And seeing the names nabbed it doesn't surprise me. Short names are highly sought after.

Thanks for the response! It’s been a super long time since I’ve played here and it seems so much has changed, even from the last time I logged in.

Your pets names are able to be reused after you have been off the site for 1 year, so they do give a lot of leeway.