3 'characters' rather than 3 letters, so 'ME', and a space.(that post was me;trevor)
You don't need to actually create a new e-mail account,just make up a new e-mail address(stick a letter in front of your old one,thats what i did).
As long as the address has not been used on this site already then it is OK.
nothing new there,and you can still have more than one name, but the point is,nobody else can use any of those names once you have registered.
Which is great - if it says, e.g. Pastille,we now know for sure that it is Pastille - never much doubt there anyway,but still...