I noticed today that I am able to create a character with a name already in use by someone else. I personally would not like someone else running around with my name
Yeah, I see your point. But I think it's kind of cool because you can meet people with the same exact name as you. Plus, how would you like it if you really wanted a certain name but it was taken? I'm guessing that they let people have the same names because with such a large list of combinations of names, it's very rare that someone will get the same name as you. And even if they do, chances are that you'll never meet them. There are so many realms and areas and worlds that its even unlikely that you'll meet someone with the same last name as you! Though that did happen to me once.... But anyway, I do see your point. It would be kind of weird that someone has your name.
I'd like to be able to name my own characters too. I wanted to use names from the Celtic Gods/Goddesses pantheons. Oh well. Maybe they will add that feature later on, and give us all the option to change the names of our existing characters if we want.