Trainers, reports are coming in that Niantic are changing Pokemon Go’s players’ username without any permission and without any previous notification.
There are many Pokemon Go players reporting that their in-game username/nickname is changed without their permission and Niantic and Pokemon Go are adding a number or a letter at the end of the current nickname.
Now, to make this clear for everyone, yes, they are changing/adjusting players’ nicknames and there is a reason for it. Niantic and Pokemon Go are changing players’ nicknames because it’s a DUPLICATE Trainer nickname.
Now, as per Niantic email, they want to avoid any confusion and if you don’t like your new nickname, you can always change it via the Settings menu in the game.
They will continue to be changing/adjusting players’ nicknames in the following weeks as well, so you might want to check your email daily.
The only problem with this is that when you choose a username, if it’s already taken, they tell you at the time (I know because when I first signed up, the first name I entered said it was already taken). So how can there be duplicates if you weren’t allowed a duplicate name in the first place?
To me this has happened to me and I really do not understand how may have been more than 3 years since I believed the account until they discovered that someone else had the same nickname. I tried to get in touch with the game support but I still don’t have news
i had set up an account through niantic and forgot about it at level 1. I then used my gmail account to get up to level 33. I am unable to change either name to free up the one i actually want to use.