<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.