Rename a SharePoint list content type

Question

I need to rename the content type I created a couple months back and have been using for a document library, assigned site columns to, created document library views for and have added workflow to.

It appears that this is quite simple to do under the site settings for content type. However it is often the simple, apparently straight forward things that cause unforeseen issues.

Does anyone know of any gotchas when it comes to renaming a content type?

Answer 1

Here's some guidelines, the main statement though is:

The general guideline for evolving the content type IA is to never change or rename content types or their aspects, make new ones and hide the old ones.

Answer 2

You can set the SPContentType.Name property and then call SPContentType.Update(). Considering the guidelines linked to in Colin's answer you should test this in a non-production environment first.