Agree with this, any char under level 60 not even once logged in in the past six months should have its name flagged for rename to give others the chance to get their favourite name. Nothing to do with originality, the switch from ED to Kronos for example had a lot of name-laming, people taking ED names just to screw those people over. Those lvl 1s have never been logged in.
About merge name-situation: Creation date Lharts would also be pretty lame, a K2 lvl 60 losing their name to a K1 lvl 1 char never ever logged in since kronos' release. Priority should be: level 60----> /played (not counting any added time after January to avoid lame idling) ----> creation date.
In other words, a snapshot of current name situation should already have been taken before anouncing anything about /played prio.
To really make people unable to lame others; any namechange from past December and onwards will make that name the lowest priority come merge, even if it's a level 60. (protecting guildbanks).