What would cause the Model Dropdown to display OLD names when the Model Dialog displays the edited ones?

When you say "dropdown at the bottom of the CAD screen" do you mean the dialog that looks something like this?

That's not listing models. That is actually the dialog to select between View Groups. While view groups are often named for the models they display, they are independent of the modes themselves. It is possible to have models that don't even have view groups.

The fastest way I have found to save off a view group is to open the model I want to see and save settings. There is also a button between the list and the view buttons which lets you Manage view groups.

You can probably find more information about view groups and the view groups dialog in the Help.

Thanks MaryB!  It looks like that's what we're talking about.