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This really is dependent on how the module was coded, modules such as news and smartsection were developed so that you can easily change the module name with 2 steps:
1- open file xoops_version.php
- change:
$modversion['dirname'] = "newname";
2- rename module dir to 'newname'.
That's it.
Notice: Although some modules correctly use $xoopsModule->getVar('dirname') not all of them have this correctly setup for their respective blocks, meaning the module will work fine with the name change but their blocks will not.