How do you change the name of the font embedded in the .ttf file? (It's for a device that's expecting a hard coded font name that I'd like to swap w/ another more readable openly licensed font).
I'd prefer a method which I can implement myself rather than installing a program.
TrueType is a pretty complex binary data format -- the kind that takes an entire book-length spec to describe. I've worked with it in the distant past.
There are specialized tools that can edit fonts, including metadata like names. I would not recommend trying to mess with the binary data in a font file without such a tool. There might be libraries available that you could call to manipulate TrueType data; if one existed, I would guess Python would be the most likely language to find it in, because there's a long correlation between font hackers and Python (Guido van Rossum's brother is a well-known typographer.)