Thanks for the response. having played the game a long time and made numerous characters there are a couple of things I can say. I am certain that the name was not taken while I remade the character and, the rules for naming did not change recently to no longer allow the name. I don't know why names get through sometimes and then don't. but I have seen it happen several times. I have tried in the past to have the name in question and failed. Similar names that use the first three letters also failed in the past but recently it worked, so I assumed the name had been allowed. But of course when I deleted I couldn't remake the toon.
I can only assume that there is a glitch that sometimes allows things but, in all honesty there is absolutely no logical reason why the name I want would not be allowed so, I'm at a loss.