Mojang has officially announced that they will introduce name changes on February 4th.
What does this mean?This means that you will be able to change your ingame name on the server.For example I could change my name from Tomographix to Tomographics.
How will this work with my rank / protections?The rank system and protections have been updated to using a system called UUID's. This means that the game knows you as a string of digits and numbers and not your ingame name. Therefore you should be fine for your protections and ranks. Lockette however will not work for you if you change your name colour at this stage.
Read more at the official Mojang post here.
WARNINGI'm not a fan of users being able to change their ingame names. While most of the plugins will work for you if you do this I will not be going out of my way to give you back lost items / protections / anything else should it not work.Change your name at your own risk.