0.9.3 will actually wipe all characters!

This is a great opportunity for people to be able to adventure with each other in groups since everyone will be the same level, it can really benefit new players if they can group with veterans and its also good for trading items since at least for awhile everyone will be close in level.

Anyone knows if the character "wipe" will free up our names? Or will we have to delete the legacy characters to reuse their names?

There won't be any legacy characters, there will be wipe, every char will be brought to lvl 1 just like (s)he would just start a new game. So all the names will stay.