Renaming named ranges - excel

Question

I have a workbook with many named ranges to rename. I have a spreadsheet with the old names and the new names.
This works:
Dim strOldName As String
Dim strNewName As String
strOldName = rngNamedRanges.Cells(1, 6).Value2
strNewName = strOldName & "_Renamed"
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(strOldName)
.Name = strNewName
End With
This does not:
Dim strOldName As String
Dim strNewName As String
strOldName = rngNamedRanges.Cells(1, 6).Value2
strNewName = CStr(rngNamedRanges.Cells(1, 8).Value2)
With ActiveWorkbook.Names(strOldName)
.Name = strNewName
End With
Clearly, I'm doing something wrong assigning strNewName.
I have also tried using .text, .value, and trimming the string, all with the same non-result.
The non-working code does not produce an error. It just fails to change the name.
rngNamedRanges.Cells(1,6) refers to a cell containing straight text.
rngNamedRanges.Cells(1,8) refers to a cell containing a CONCATENATE formula which creates the new range name based on several other pieces of info contained in other columns.

Answer 1

Renaming is always a pain. Try the following:
Sub Rename()
StrOld = "MyRange1"
StrNew = StrOld & "_Renamed"
Range(StrOld).Name = StrNew
With ThisWorkbook
.Names(StrOld).Delete
End With
End Sub
Looping is up to you. :) Let us know if this helps.

Answer 2

Thanks for the input, all! I still don't understand why the first example I gave worked and the second one did not. Nonetheless, the following code appears to be working. I apologize for poor formatting of the snippet.
Dim rngNamedRanges As Range
Dim strOldName As String
Dim strNewName As String
Dim strRefersTo As String
Set rngNamedRanges = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets("Named Ranges").Range("A2:K909")
i = 1
Do Until [CONDITION] = ""
strOldName = CStr(Trim(rngNamedRanges.Cells(i, 6).Value2))
strNewName = CStr(Trim(rngNamedRanges.Cells(i, 8).Value2))
strRefersTo = ActiveWorkbook.Names(strOldName).RefersTo
'Update all the formulas to use the new name.
For Each ws In Worksheets
If ws.Name <> "Named Ranges" Then
ws.Cells.Replace What:=strOldName, Replacement:=strNewName, LookAt _
:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
End If
Next
'Delete old name and replace with the new one
ActiveWorkbook.Names(strOldName).Delete
ActiveWorkbook.Names.Add strNewName, strRefersTo
End If
strOldName = ""
strNewName = ""
i = i + 1
Loop

Answer 3

This is a really simple way to rename a range name. I got this from Paul Kelly at Excel Macro Mastery. Works great.
Sub rename_a_range_name()
Dim NewName As Variant
ThisWorkbook.Names("CurrentName").Name = "NewName"
End Sub

Answer 4

I modified the above code to rename some NAMES. With regards to the code immediately above, to loop through the worksheets and find/replace each NAME in formulas (etc)... I found that I needed to remove the Sheet Reference that is in the beginning of the string for each NAME's name.
'Update all the formulas to use the new name.
myStart = InStr(1, strOldName, "!", vbTextCompare) + 1
myLength = Len(strOldName) - myStart + 1
strOldNameSHORT = Mid(strOldName, myStart, myLength)
myStart = InStr(1, strNewName, "!", vbTextCompare) + 1
myLength = Len(strNewName) - myStart + 1
strNewNameSHORT = Mid(strNewName, myStart, myLength)
For Each ws In Worksheets
ws.Cells.Replace What:=strOldNameSHORT, Replacement:=strNewNameSHORT,
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False,
SearchFormat:=False, ReplaceFormat:=False
Next

Answer 5

Long story short
Putting the update into e.g. the worksheet change event is likely to work.
Root Cause
Update: UDFs called from cells are not allowed to change things on the sheet. (That's what I did)
Old: I guess there are certain calculation processing phases, where updates to names are allowed or not allowed.
More explanation and findings
I wanted to rename a range and it was sometimes ignored and sometimes I got an error 1004 (application- or object-defined error - in German: Anwendungs- oder objektdefinierter Fehler).
Let's say one has a rename function like this:
Function rename( nold As String, nnew As String ) As Boolean
ThisWorkbook.Names(nold).Name = nnew
rename = True
End Function
I found out the following:
if the update is triggered by some UDF (user-defined cell function) on some cell update it will be ignored in some cases and in other cases the 1004 error is raised
e.g. putting some =rename("oldName", "newName") into A1 where oldName exists
why and when it is ignored or the error is raised is unknown to me
if the update is triggered by some event, e.g. the Private Sub Worksheet_Change(ByVal Target As Range) it will always be applied
Other side-effects
In finding out all this and debugging it, it may have caused that cells got locked automagically and thus also causing some 1004 error.