Unlocking used character name?

Hi everyone,

I tried to poke around the forums for a quick answer to this question but haven't found it yet. In retail WoW, Blizzard will unlock a USED character name if the account that owns the character has been inactive for a certain amount of time (I think 6+ months) so another person can use it. I'm trying to create a new character with a name I use in retail, and I'm getting a "That name is unavailable" message (which I understand is because someone on my server already has the name). However, when I searched for the character's name on the armory, a character with that name does not exist on my server (Lordaeron). I'm not sure how the armory here works. If the character name doesn't show up in the armory, does that mean that the account has been inactive for some time? If so, is there a way to request the character name be unlocked?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!