<tinfoil hat> Remember, Google is getting into the Social scene because it's a rich data set that they don't currently have access to, and Google likes data. Google wants your "real" name so they can tie all your information back together. The good news is, they'll probably ease the restrictions once they figure out how to normalize identities even with non-normalized names.</hat>
As a side note, I'm in a similar boat to Patrick with respect to my real name: at least 6 variations have been used on legal forms alone, due to length and special character restrictions, and excessive use of spaces. Fortunately it's only my middle name that gives problems so it can often be ignored, but I really like it so it's still annoying when I have to distort it.
i don't see how having a real name is interesting to google. a handle is a much better unique identifier, which is what you actually want when you are attempting to collect data from a bunch of sources. i could tell google that my name is james smith, and they'd be happy but it would be absolutely useless (and false). i could tell google that my name is notatoad, and that would probably be enough to aggregate all the information there is about me online.
As a side note, I'm in a similar boat to Patrick with respect to my real name: at least 6 variations have been used on legal forms alone, due to length and special character restrictions, and excessive use of spaces. Fortunately it's only my middle name that gives problems so it can often be ignored, but I really like it so it's still annoying when I have to distort it.