MB is certainly not “ugly”, but she’s less conventional than say… Kaley Cuoco, who’s the archetypical blonde, busty hot chick that seems to be the ideal in today’s society.
If I had to pick from the BBT cast, it would be Melissa Rausch in a landslide, followed by Mayim Bialik, and then Kaley Cuoco. The first two seem smart, funny and interesting, while I haven’t seen anything about Kaley Cuoco that implies that she’s particularly interesting outside of her looks.
Not every actress changes her name, especially if she has built up strong name recognition already.
This is the first time I noticed it. IMDb says she was credited that way on the previous episode (The Convention Conundrum) and that she was married on December 31st.
Reminds me of Jamie-Lynn Sigler changing her credited name to Jamie-Lynn Discala during the Sopranos run. (She played Meadow.) That ended up lasting maybe a couple years, and I bet in hindsight she wishes she hadn’t taken that name for credits.