Yup, getting a computer to decide that two names are "similar" is MUCH harder than getting it to see that two are different by a single letter or number. It raises the question of, "what makes two names similar?" The pattern matching abilities of the human brain are utterly remarkable, compared to even the most sophisticated computer programs.

And, on the other side of the coin, shoudl we penalize newcomers who want a certain flavor of name, just because somebody else got there first? If we did that, I couldn't have changed my (stupid) old name to the one I have now. I had to accept a "1" on the end, but I like my new name so much better than my old one.