User blog comment:TimmyQuivy/Introducing the UserRenameTool/@comment-3218221-20180212002839

Something I've always wondered about renaming is whether or not inactivity comes to play. For instance, I'd like to rename my account to simply "Rev" - but another user already uses that name. Now, I don't know if that user is active anywhere, but let's say they weren't. I assume that the tacit rule is that one cannot request a reclaim of an existing user's username (even if they had not been active for, say, 5+ years), but – one must also posit that even if one managed to track down the inactive user, there would be no guarantee that they user would ever respond to a request for their name. In that case, what would one do?

Ah, well. I suppose I could choose a different rename, but "Rev" would have been the most beneficial for a myriad of reasons. The first being that it would still be recognizable as me, to an extent - as a sysop, I realize that sysop renames carry more weight (in that you want to be known/a presence that users can come to).

Edit: Also, the help page that the tool links to doesn't exist.